Elderly Care: People get depressed for a variety of reasons, even elderly people.

If your elderly family member is battling depression, there can be multiple causes ranging from grief and loss to feeling alone and isolated. There may also be physical causes of depression. It’s important for you or your elderly care provider to try a variety of techniques to work through what she’s experiencing.

Find Ways to Get Practical Support for Her

Often when someone is depressed, routine tasks are much more difficult. Your senior may not be eating well or keeping up with household tasks. Bringing in elder care providers can make all of that easier for her. Senior care providers can give her the space that she needs while also offering companionship and practical help, in the ways that your senior needs most.

Look at Her Dietary Needs

Again, eating rarely or the wrong foods can contribute to depression. It’s also a sign that your senior may be more depressed than you or she realize. Elderly care providers can take the burden of meal preparation off your senior’s shoulders and help to ensure that she’s eating healthy foods that meet her individual dietary needs. If your elderly family member has been feeling worse because of health issues, changing her diet can help her body to have what it needs to feel better.

Encourage Her to Be More Active

Being even a little more active can release chemicals that can help your senior to battle depression. That might mean a short walk every day or doing a few simple stretches. Make sure that your senior is safe to exercise and then work in small amounts of activity here and there. She can increase her physical activity as she feels better.

Elderly Care: Talk to Her Doctor

So often depression has a medical basis. Talk to your senior’s doctor about what she’s feeling and what might be causing the problem. Her doctor may look at things like health issues, medications she’s taking, and more. This can help your elderly family member to have a full plan that she can use to battle her depression. Even if the cause is not medical, there may be some help that her doctor can offer that works for your elderly family member.

Depression hits every person differently, including your senior. The key is that she does whatever she can to help alleviate the symptoms and to work through how she’s feeling. Often any changes that she makes can help her to avoid depression in the future, too. Elderly care providers can be a great help with this.

If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Elderly Care in Palo Alto, CA, call the caring staff at Aviva In-Home Care.
Call today: (415) 795-2203

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Evan Loevner

CEO at Aviva In-Home Care

As a former hospital administrator, I launched Aviva with the goal of having a more focused, direct impact on the delivery of care than I could ever accomplish within a hospital setting. For me, the joy of running an organization like Aviva In-Home Care is having the ability to positively improve the lives of individuals needing customized care. As a passionate Bay Area resident, I know that many local seniors can benefit from new approaches to in-home care, that will bring them more connection to the community, and provide families with a greater sense of comfort that their loved one is indeed matched with an ideal caregiver.

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