Five Big Challenges in Caring for a Senior Who Has Had a Stroke

Elder Care in Manalapan NJ

Recovering from a stroke takes a lot of time and a lot of work. Your elderly family member is facing some massive challenges as she recovers from this health event.

Managing Emotions and Depression

There are a lot of emotions your senior is sorting through after a stroke. It’s not unheard of at all for people recovering from a stroke to be facing severe depression, too. Your elderly family member’s entire life is affected by a stroke, even if it’s a mild one. There’s a lot to process and to work through.

Communicating with Others

Depending on the part of her brain affected by the stroke, your senior may find that she’s not able to communicate as well as she used to in the past. She may have trouble forming speech, understanding what’s said to her, or she may have intermittent issues with communication. Using alternative communication methods, like gestures and flash cards, can be a way to help her to let you know what she needs or wants.

Eating and Getting Enough Nutrients

One of the issues your senior might face involves getting enough nutrients and even being able to eat. Her ability to chew and to swallow food may be significantly impacted by the stroke she’s had. She may have to learn how to eat safely all over again, and this can be so frustrating. Her doctor may even recommend a liquid diet for a period of time.

Personal Care Tasks

Before her stroke, your senior may have handled every aspect of her life herself. After a stroke, she may find that doing the simplest things, like bathing or dressing herself, become impossible. Between her brain having trouble coordinating these activities and her muscles perhaps failing to respond as she expect them to, she may need quite a bit of help.

Mobility

But it isn’t just personal care that becomes more difficult for your senior. She may not be able to walk as well as she did before the stroke, or at all. Suddenly being unable to get up out of bed herself or to walk from the couch to the fridge for something to drink can be frustrating. There are other mobility considerations, too, such as no longer being able to drive or to run her own errands.

Your elderly family member may need a variety of medical assistance and therapies to heal from her stroke. It’s also a good idea bring in elder care providers. They can offer hands-on assistance that you and your senior need in order to help her to find her new normal as well as possible.

If you or an aging loved one is considering elder care in Manalapan, NJ, please contact the caring staff at Care Street Home Care today. Call (732) 607-8870.

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Care Street Home Care Staff

Care Street Home Health Care LLC is a division of Ocean Healthcare, a network of New Jersey-based healthcare centers and services founded in 1973 by Melvin and Debbie Feigenbaum. Melvin and Debbie both came from warm, close-knit backgrounds that emphasize the centrality of family. The values of respect, responsibility, and dignity run deep in the Feigenbaum family; they share a strong sensitivity to the importance of caring for others, particularly the elderly and disabled.

The Care Street mission is straightforward and compelling: to provide a comprehensive range of the highest quality home health services in a professional and efficient manner that will enhance our clients' quality of life and empower families to keep their loved one at home.

Care Street has earned a reputation of excellence among hundreds of families, and is recommended by medical professionals and hospital discharge planners throughout the State.

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