Poor eyesight is a serious health concern for American seniors. Roughly one in three seniors copes with some form of vision loss or vision impairment. Poor vision is linked with lower quality of life, poor self-care, and increased risk of injury and poor health. One study from 2014 found that, over an eight year period, seniors with poor vision faced a 16% higher risk of mortality compared to those without vision problems. How Home Care Helps Seniors with Vision Loss or Impairment
One way to fight back against elderly vision impairment is through home care services. While home care services can’t restore vision, they can help seniors with poor eyesight in a number of other ways. With home care, seniors with vision loss receive the personal support they need to maintain quality of life and reduce their risk of injury, poor health, and mortality.
Home Care and Poor Eyesight
Vision loss may be linked with lower quality of life and poor health, but these aren’t direct links. There’s almost always something in between.
For instance, seniors with poor vision are more likely to suffer injuries. This isn’t because poor vision causes injuries. Instead, it causes seniors to misjudge their surroundings, which increases the risk of slipping, tripping, or coming in contact with harmful objects. In these situations, it isn’t necessary to correct vision problems to reduce the risk of injury. If someone is there to lend a helping hand and a second set of eyes, it can dramatically reduce the chance of injury.
If a spouse or family member can’t always be there, a home care professional can step in to help seniors with vision problems. Through the support of a home care professional, seniors with poor eyesight can benefit in a number of areas. These include:
- Social Life. Researchers have found that seniors with poor vision report lower levels of social activity and higher levels of loneliness. A home care professional can make it easier for vision-impaired seniors to get out and meet friends and family. Even if seniors prefer to stay at home, a caregiver can provide them with much-needed person-to-person contact.
- Self-Care.Poor vision makes mundane tasks more difficult than many people realize. These difficulties often lead seniors with limited eyesight to give up on aspects of self-care. Home care services ensure that someone is there to help perform these tasks, which may include activities like dressing, grooming, day-to-day hygiene, and preparing complete meals.
- Homemaking activities, as with self-care activities, become more difficult as vision degenerates. Seniors with poor eyesight who struggle with homemaking can benefit from a caregiver’s help with activities like buying groceries, light housekeeping, washing dishes, and doing laundry.
- Many seniors give up their favorite pastimes as they lose their vision. A caregiver is the perfect partner for hobbies like card games, gardening, model making, or bird watching, providing a companion and a second set of eyes to make these activities enjoyable once more.
- Accident Prevention.Accident prevention is the most important thing home care can offer to seniors with vision problems. A caregiver’s presence means someone is there to spot dangers that visually impaired seniors can’t, such as slipping or tripping risks on floors, sharp or hot objects, and household chemicals and medications with hard-to-read labels.
If you have a loved one with vision loss or impairment, you should be able to find home care services through a home care agency in your local area. To find home care services near you, we invite you to contact your local Visiting Angels® office
How Home Care Helps Seniors with Vision Loss or Impairment
How Home Care Helps Seniors with Vision Loss or Impairment How Home Care Helps Seniors with Vision Loss or Impairment How Home Care Helps Seniors with Vision Loss or Impairment How Home Care Helps Seniors with Vision Loss or Impairment How Home Care Helps Seniors with Vision Loss or Impairment How Home Care Helps Seniors with Vision Loss or Impairment
