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Companion Care is the Most

Critical Stage of Your Aging Cycle

Companion care is the most important and absolutely the most critical stage of care to maintaining your independence.  Companion care is early-stage care that is non-medical and its definition of what it does can be found in its name, it provides companionship.  In the United States, older adults are much more likely to live alone than in other countries.  That percentage increases with age.  The reason this stage of care is so important are because of two factors: it is the stage where you can make the biggest impact on an older adult's independence and the stage where you can make the biggest impact in saving the older adult money for care related expenses.


How Companion Care Can Extend Independence

An older adult living alone can have very infrequent interaction with others.  Family can live far away and studies have shown that living alone can cause depression.  This is dangerous for an older adult because that can result in not eating and not eating can result in dizziness when you try to walk and that can result in a fall.  It is a domino effect that needs to be addressed at the earliest stage where this can occur, hence why companion care is very important.  Companion care can help identify changes in behavior and the right form of companion care can help turn the above situation around, before it results in a fall.

The majority of older adults take at least one form of medication.  Not taking your medication properly, on time or missing your medication time can result in a hospital visit and the loss of independence.  This is a very common reason older adults lose their independence.  A recent doctor visit results in medication changes or new medication being administered and that changes times and patterns for older adults who may have been used to a previous schedule and routine.  This is where daily companion care can help ensure they are meeting their schedule and offer friendly reminders, we can all benefit from someone keeping track of things we need to remember for us.  Age is not the main reason people forget to take their medications, though it can contribute.


How Companion Care Can Save You Money

These days the costs for everything are going up, even the cost of companion care from traditional sources like home care agencies have increased.  This often discourages families from getting companion care, but there are other alternatives for families in Northern Virginia, seen here.  Companion care can save you money by helping you stay out of the hospital.  How exactly you ask?  The frequent interactions can pick up on things early and notice the small changes that can snow ball into larger serious issues later.  Hospital visits become expensive and can often be the catalyst for entering the next stage of home care, that is why I always emphasize for early stage care.

Another key thing in being proactive is to recognize habits that are good for your long-term health.  This applies to every age group, but is much more impactful for older adults.  Companion care can help instill healthy habits by encouraging them and encouraging the lifestyle that coincides with them.  This is absolutely tied to healthy eating, which I mentioned on one of my previous posts as well.  I am a huge believer in being proactive and working to address things early for our older parents.


Conclusion

Companion care is an early-stage care that seems meaningless but is far from it.  Early-stage care that is frequent can have a huge positive impact on the older adult's independence.  The greatest savings financially can be realized at this stage and that is for all parties involved, the family, the older adult and even the healthcare insurer.  There are many benefits to staying proactive and getting care early with companion care.



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