Helping Out Senior Citizens: How You Can Assist Them With Their Condition

For anyone who is around 40 years of age or more, growing old stops being fun. You get tired more easily. Your joints ache a lot more, even if it's not that cold. Your eyesight and your hearing starts to fails you. Even the healthiest of adults approaching the senior years feel these setting in, what more if he's someone who is battling a disease or condition?

A lot of these are truly unforgiving. For example, Parkinson's disease is very common among old people. It can leave one shaking so badly he won't even be able to take his medication without assistance. Stroke victims are left with a part of their body, if not half, paralyzed. It is quite unimaginable how a senior citizen would be able to deal with this without help.

Not everyone is privileged enough to have a personal nurse who can attend to them day and night. In fact, a huge number of elderly citizens are without insurance, and unfortunately, a lot are also living alone without anyone to assist them. Under these circumstances, they are left to a very grim fate.

In case you are someone who is in a position to assist an ailing senior citizen, here are some things which you can do to help them out.

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that comes with old age. There is no cure for this as of now, only regular exercise and medication can help alleviate the condition. Assisting the elderly in exercising, even for just several minutes of exercise daily can be of great help. Take in mind, however, that some days can be more painful for them. Work with them carefully after their exercise as they are probably vulnerable due to fatigue.

Another common condition is stroke. If you live with an elderly person who you think has a high risk for stroke, recognition of an impending attack is crucial. Call the paramedics immediately if you notice any of the following:

* sudden numbness of the arm, leg, face. Usually on one side of the body
* sudden confusion
* incoherent speech
* visual impairment on one or both eyes
* sudden mobility problems
* severe headache
* dizziness and vertigo

The onset of Alzheimer's and dementia is often characterized by forgetfulness, which if not treated early on, will progress to disorientation and confusion. Simple tasks like brushing teeth and going to the bathroom will be very difficult. A senior suffering from early stages of Alzheimer's might try to hide the symptoms, which is why you will have to be observant and patient with them as well. Although a person with Alzheimer's and dementia cannot be cured as of now, they can still live a semblance of a normal life with proper management and your help.

Aside from these, the best thing you can possibly do for an underprivileged senior citizen would be to assist him/her in getting medical insurance. A task as simple as procuring and submitting a senior citizen's necessary documentation to Medicaid companies such as Senior Planning Services can literally save his life. Senior Planning Services knows that Medicaid application is a tedious process, which is why they take on the burden so that families can focus more on caring for their elderly.