Four Ways to Learn How to Properly Lift and Assist Your Senior

When your elderly family member has trouble with mobility, that means that she’s going to need some assistance. The most common source of help with mobility is likely to be you, so it’s absolutely essential that you learn how to lift and assist your senior as safely as possible. There’s a lot to learn about things like leverage and weight distribution, so knowing where to start is key. 

Get Some Help from Her Doctor

Senior Care Windermere, FL: Properly Lift and Assist Your Senior

Your senior’s doctor is a good first choice for help learning how to transfer and lift your senior if she has mobility issues. There are some specific techniques that will allow you to support your senior without straining or stressing your own body in the process. Getting demonstrations and help with the practical aspects of learning these techniques can demystify them considerably. 

Make Sure You’ve Got Experienced Help 

It also makes things easier if you’ve got some experienced hands-on help at home. Senior care providers can help to build on the techniques you learn from your senior’s doctor. They can show you how to assist your elderly family member in her existing environment. If you’re not physically able to be as much help to your senior as she needs, they are the best solution for helping in the long run, too. 

Practice Using the Right Strategies and Tools 

Just learning the right techniques isn’t quite enough. You also need to practice and to find the right assistive tools and devices that will help you and your senior to avoid injury. A lot of what you’re learning to do is going to feel odd to you at first, but as you develop muscle memory it all becomes a bit easier. 

Know When to Stop 

The most important part of learning how to help your senior with mobility issues is knowing when you need to stop or step aside. This is crucial because it’s a vital part of keeping you and your elderly family member from becoming injured. Letting other people who are better able to assist your senior do so ensures that she’s going to have the help she truly needs. It also helps to ensure you’re going to be able to continue to be her caregiver. 

Injuring yourself is counterproductive as a caregiver, especially for the long run. When you have a system that keeps both you and your senior safe and healthy, that’s going to support everyone’s needs. 

 

If you or an aging loved-one is considering Senior Care in Windermere, FL please contact the caring staff at Winter Garden Senior Home Care today. (407) 347-2050 

Rebecca Lanterman Jennifer Talbot
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