Caregiving Monday: 2 Reasons to Be Gentle with Senior Adults

Recently, another family member visited GG and while there assisted her with various tasks, including rolling her hair.

After the visit, GG confided that she appreciated all that was done but this family member was very rough.  This person didn’t mean to be rough, but she didn’t realize how rough she was in her actions.

Senior Adults bruise easily
Senior Adults bruise easily

Senior adults are very sensitive and needs extra TLC.

There are two reasons I can think of for this:

  1. Their skin is thin—this is often due to medicine and/or age.  There may also be other reasons, but these are the two most common.   This means that the senior adult bruises and bleeds much easier.   GG medicine has thinned her skin and she easily bruises.  Recently, she scraped her hand on the top of her hand leading to an open wound that had to be bandaged and cared for while healing.
  2. Senior adults do not like to be rushed.  They are not able to do things as fast as they once were. They have to do things in their own time and at their own speed.  Being manhandled is not pleasant for anyone, but is even more traumatic for senior adults who have a low toleration for noise and being rushed.

Do you need to use additional TLC with your senior adult?