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Senior Care Tips: Effective Preventive Care for Your Loved Ones

Senior Care in Spring Valley, TX

Senior-Care-in-Spring-Valley-TXYou would not go an entire year without ever checking the oil in your car or changing the air filters, or wait until your gutters overfilled and broke before removing the leaves. You take preventive measures to make sure that your car, home, and other details of your life stay functioning, safe, and effective so you do not have to deal with the consequences of damage. The same should go for your senior care plan. One of the primary goals of this plan should be making sure that your elderly loved ones stay healthy and strong, and that starts with good preventive care.

The purpose of a preventive care approach with elderly adults is to take steps now to help guard them from health consequences rather than allowing problems to arise and addressing them when they do. This helps to give them a higher quality of life and improve their overall health and well-being for the long term.

Use these tips, and share them with your aging parents’ senior health care services provider, to create an effective preventive care plan for your loved ones:

• Get routine screenings. Screenings are your first line of defense against a wide variety of health concerns, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Visit your parents’ doctors to find out what types of screenings they should be getting on a regular basis and schedule them so that you can keep close monitoring on their health. This vigilance can allow for early detection that makes treatment of serious health problems easier.

• Mammogram. Getting a mammogram can be a lifesaving experience. This simple test can detect lumps even before they are noticeable through touch, making it a powerful weapon for early detection of breast cancer. Senior women should get a mammogram at least every two years unless greater frequency is recommended due to family history.

• Pap test. This test screens for cervical cancer as well as some other abnormalities. Women over the age of 65 should get this test performed every five years unless greater frequency is recommended due to family history.

• AAA screening. Though just a one-time test, this men-only screening can be a critical step in protecting your elderly father from a possibly fatal condition. This test screens for abdominal aortic aneurysm and is recommended for men between the ages of 65 and 75 who have at some point in their lives been a smoker. The quick ultrasound looks for an enlarged blood vessel within the abdomen that could rupture, causing severe bleeding and possible death.

• Mental health screenings. Mental illness is a serious risk for older adults, with more than half of seniors over the age of 65 experiencing depression. Mental health screenings allow a doctor to monitor your seniors for possible mental health risks so that you can take steps to protect them from the potentially devastating effects of these illnesses.

If you have a loved one who could benefit from senior care in Spring Valley, TX contact At Your Side Home Care. We help seniors and their families with many levels of home care service. Call (832) 271-1600 for more information.

Donna Wrabel, LMSW

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