Active social lives have been shown to help seniors keep their minds sharp as they age. This is something that has been known for quite a while, but recent research shows just how helpful a social life can be. By looking at things like marital status, contact with family and friends, and the amount of visits with neighbors and nearby children, researchers have been able to learn a little more about the benefits that go along with social contact.
Their findings? The people who are the most socially integrated (had the most contact with other people) had less memory decline. The study last for six years, and looked at about 7,000 different people.
The big problem that most seniors face when it comes to living an active social life is that as we get older, it gets harder and harder to get out of the house. Physical disability limits what many senior citizens are able to do outside of the home. While technology has helped to bridge this gap somewhat thanks to apps like Facetime that let people communicate face to face across great distances, this is still not a complete replacement for personal contact. Another concern that many seniors have when it comes to social contact is that the people that they know and love may have either passed away or no longer live in the area. There is also a concern about becoming a nuisance to friends and family because of disability.
These are all valid concerns, of course. But that doesn’t change to fact that social contact has benefits to it. For example, many researchers believe that social stimulation can help slow down the spread of Alzheimer’s disease because of the exercise that it gives the brain.
There are some things that in-home care cannot do, but social contact is part of the very definition of in-home care. When you have a loved one receiving care from a professional caregiver, they are working with another human being. And while this person might not be a friend at first, one of the benefits of having a truly caring professional on your side is that close companionships can be formed. In fact, many people that receive this type of senior care say that their favorite part of having a caregiver is that they gain a new friend out of the process.
If you have an older loved one who is in need of senior care, looking at a professional service to administer your mom or dad’s in-home care could be a good idea. Not only is this type of senior care very affordable in comparison to a nursing home, it also presents social benefits. Yes, these things can be obtained from a nursing home, but in-home care can do the same at a fraction of the cost. Also, not everyone who would benefit from in-home care needs the intensive type of care that is presented with a nursing home. Unfortunately, many people think nursing home first, even when it’s not helpful to the person in need of care.
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