Four Ideas for Making Clothing Easier for Your Senior
Clothing can become more difficult for your elderly family member for so many reasons. Problems with mobility, surgery, and joint issues can all cause problems with doing even the simplest of daily activities. It helps if you and your aging family member are already working toward finding answers for any complications she’s experiencing around clothing and getting dressed.
Reconsider Her Wardrobe
Elder Care Palm Beach County, FL: Clothing and Seniors
When your elderly family member first starts having trouble with her clothing, take a minute to assess the situation. What exactly is giving her trouble? That’s going to help you to land on the right solutions. One option that can help quite a bit is to reconsider some of her clothing. If zippers and closures are a problem, for instance, then clothing she can just pull on may be the way to go.
Lay out Clothing in the Right Order
Another common issue is that your senior may start to experience cognitive changes and have trouble deciding when to put on certain items of clothing. An easy way to help with this is to lay out her clothing for her in the proper order. The last items of clothing she puts on would be on the bottom of the stack, with undergarments being the items on top of the stack.
Use Tools and Gadgets
There are a lot more tools and gadgets out there to help your senior to get dressed than either of you might realize. There are button hook devices, tools that help your senior to put on her socks, and dressing sticks that assist with mobility. All of these and more may be exactly what your senior needs in order to continue to handle the aspects of dressing that she still wants to handle on her own.
Consider Hiring Elder Care Providers
Depending on the challenges your senior is facing with getting dressed, home care providers might be the perfect solution. Elder care providers are able to take over only the parts of helping your senior to get dressed that she needs help managing. They’re not there to remove your senior’s independence or keep her from doing things. They’re there to improve her quality of life.
It might take some time for you and your senior to find the exact right solutions for her. It’s possible that using a combination of different options might be the most helpful way to go for your elderly family member.