Aging is a fact of life. Signs to Watch For.

Aging is a fact of life.  Whether a person lives a long and fruitful life or succumbs earlier than they would like, everyone faces aging. With aging brings impediments to normal activities.  As people age these impediments become more dangerous for their well being and must be monitored for safety-sake.

For someone watching their parents age these questions come to mind:

• Are my parents safe living on their own?

• How long can they continue living on their own?

• Can we find competent affordable live-in or visiting care workers?

• Is there a time when living on their own becomes too much and they need to move into assisted living?

For someone living on their own, these same questions will come to mind eventually.  The quick check review below is designed to help compile these questions.  This list is NOT meant to provide answers but instead to highlight areas for questioning and review.

Daily activity:

• Getting out of bed.

  • What time

  • What time to they go to bed

• Dressing and undressing

  • Can this be done independently

  • Do they remain “fashionable” i.e do the clothes match

  • Are the clothes wearable and clean

• Walking and general mobility

  • Can they walk with or without assistance, how far

• Using the toilet independently

• Bathing

  • How often

• Grooming

  • Shaving, brushing teeth, combing hair, looking presentable

• Preparing and eating one’s own meals (and cleaning up afterward)

  • Getting enough healthy food to eat

  • Having the ability to open and process food for consumption

• Mental Acuity

  • Daily tasks, new topics, local/world news

  • Memory, names, recent events, training

  • Wandering or getting lost, losing spouse

  • Lack of good judgement

Its important to spot these issues early as they are not in themselves life threatening, they can point to bigger underlying issues that need attention in order to maintain a senior’s safety and wellbeing.

 

 

Broader Activities and areas to understand:

• Finances.

  • Are they being managed properly.  Bills paid on time

  • Any mistakes or confusion regarding finances

  • New, unusual spending habits

  • Are there any concerns regarding mismanagement or fraud

  • Are current finances sufficient to cover current and future life expenses

  • Is the person willing to share with you his/her financial situation

• Shopping

  • How organized is shopping

  • Can they travel to/from shopping without confusion

  • Paying for food- efficient or seem to have issues finding and counting out cash or using other methods of payment

  • Does food get put away in their proper places

• Meal preparation

  • Safely able to use knives and other devices.

  • Turns off devices, closes refrigerator/freezer doors

  • Cleans up

  • Eating the same meals daily or even all the time

• Using technology

  • Telephone, Television, computers

  • Ability to understand if devise are on/working

• Mail and other communications

  • Do they still read or utilize other visual stimulus

• Manage medications and retail medical devices

  • Ability to monitor own health

  • Ability to source, open, take and manage medication

• Elder abuse

  • Any concern of emotional, verbal, physical abuse

  • Any one person or new acquaintances being too close emotionally

Health Issues:

• In addition to above-mentioned issues

• Any falls, loss of balance

• Inability to manage stairs

• Repeated trips to emergency room/ hospital/doctors

• Change in robustness or strength, personality

• Decrease in involvement in daily social activity due to declining health, or

Mental Issues:

• Frequent sadness

• Loss of interest in activities your parent used to enjoy

• Personality changes

• Paranoia, delusions, hallucinations or odd new beliefs

• Hopelessness

• Excessive or unusual worrying

• Memory problems

• Difficulty learning things or retaining new concepts

• Difficulty organizing oneself

• New difficulties with mental tasks

• Driving miscues or lack of spatial issues

• Lack of social activities or purposeful activities

• Loneliness

• Watching Fox News constantly

 

Medications become very important as people age and can evolve into a central topic for health, mental and financial issues.

• What medications are used

• What prescriptions are there used, filled, unfilled

• What are the possible side effects of these medications

• What medicines or regimes are used for repeated incidents (migraines) 

• Do the elders know what medications they are supposed to take

• Are there any affordability issues             

  • Are the elders signed up for Medicare/Medicaid

  • Do they have health insurance

What to watch for:

• Difficulty remembering when and what medications to take

• Skipping some medications either on purpose or not

• Worrying about medication affordability/ accessibility

• Side effects of medications, or more importantly the combination of medications, food, alcohol, mental state

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