Caregivers of elderly loved ones don’t always share a home with them. Sometimes as a caregiver you live in the same city, sometimes you might even live in different states. For caregivers who are trying to help their loved one continue to live an independent life by helping take care of certain aspects, one thing that may worry you is your loved one being home alone all of the time. You may be concerned that your loved one is often lonely and isolated. She may even share with you on the phone or during a visit that she is lonely. Hiring live-in home care providers may help to alleviate that loneliness.
While feeling lonely doesn’t sound like a health scare such as a cancer diagnosis, loneliness can lead to many other physical health risks as well as mental health risks.
Here are six areas of your loved one’s health that suffering from loneliness can affect.
Weakened Immune System
Lonely people often are more likely to get ill from exposure to various viruses and stay ill once they have an infection.
Cognitive Decline and Dementia
A recent study found that loneliness and social isolation make a person more likely to develop dementia or other cognitive decline issues. It also increases how quickly one develops it and it progresses.
Diabetes
Those who are lonely are more likely to develop diabetes and struggle with the complications that come with this disease.
Heart Disease and Stroke
Feeling socially disconnected from others can lead to poor cardiovascular health. According to more than a dozen studies, heart disease risk increases by 29 percent, and stroke risk increases by 32 percent in socially isolated individuals.
Premature Death
Having a good community of friends and family increases the lifetimes of those who have that social connection compared to those who don’t have it.
Depression
Feeling alone and not having someone to connect with can lead to depression and other mental health conditions such as anxiety.
The “good news” about loneliness is that with some concerted effort, it can be eliminated almost completely. While you alone can provide some of that community for your elderly loved one, it’s okay and even healthy to admit that you cannot be her entire social support team. So asking friends, and neighbors, and even enlisting the help of a live-in home care provider can be a great way to help your loved one stay connected with others.
Here are simple ways to help your loved one combat loneliness.
Have someone reach out to her at least once a day. Try to make it a goal that she never goes more than 24 hours without some type of contact. It can be a simple text, a short phone call, or a visit from her live-in home care provider.
Have her join a community that meets weekly. This can be a sewing club, a book study, or a fitness group. Just having the same people to connect with weekly can give her a sense of community and make keep the connections going throughout the week. Her live-in home care provider can help with rides if needed.
Creating those important social connections will improve your loved one’s health in many ways.
Source: https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2023/diseases-linked-to-loneliness.html
If you or an aging loved one is considering Live-in Home Care Services in Livingston NJ please contact the caring staff at Expert Home Care today at (732) 937-5320.
We have been providing Home Health Care to New Jersey families since 1985, and have grown to become one of the largest licensed providers of Live-In Home Care in the upper New Jersey area. Our many years of New Jersey home care experience has produced a company that over 8,000 clients have come to rely on confidently, for help.
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