Prevent Holiday Loneliness for Your Senior Loved ones: 7 Ideas

The holidays can be such a contradiction. We’re supposed to feel cheer, but many times, there is an emptiness and loneliness that comes with missing loved ones far away, or who’ve passed on. This is particularly true for our elderly loved ones. Please remember to keep the senior members of your family close during the holidays and include them in your festivities as much as you can. These 9 ideas can help:

1. Go Visit Them

Scientific studies have shown that social contact is important, not just for mental and emotional health, but for physical health as well. Make a regular appointment to visit your senior loved ones—not just during the holidays, but throughout the year. You’ll be able to see how they’re doing, include them in your life and help them when they need a talk, a hand to hold or a hug. If you don’t live close by, see if there’s a way to schedule video calls with them on a regular basis, especially during the holidays.

2. Listen to Them

Our elderly loved ones have a wealth of lifetime experiences. The holidays might be a great time to interview them and write down their stories. And when you do this, make sure to just listen. They have so much to share! Help them arrange their photos or family history. Listen to them when they have a story to tell. These are precious moments!

3. Send Old-Fashioned Holiday Cards

In a world of electronic communication, real, paper holiday cards, especially homemade ones, can be an enormous boost to an elderly loved one, especially if they live far away. Get the kids together and make homemade cards and write messages of love to them and send them a holiday care package!

4. Get them Out of the House

If your loved one is mostly home-bound or has mobility difficulties, try to schedule a time when you can help them attend a community holiday event that they enjoy, whether it’s a musical performance, Christmas shopping, a social event or a church service. This will help them maintain those important social connections that prevent loneliness.

5. Invite them to Your Home

Participating in family holiday traditions together is a wonderful way to share the love and beat the loneliness that many seniors experience during the holidays. Prepare a comfortable place for them to sit and engage them in some family games and activities.

6. Invite them to Participate in a Service Project

One thing we hear many of our senior home care families talk about is how elderly loved ones sometimes feel like they’re not needed anymore. Nobody likes to feel this way, and our senior citizens have so much history, knowledge and experience that they can still definitely participate in helping others! Invite them to help with a project where they can use their skills to help someone else. Are they into quilting or knitting? Can they teach a class about their area of expertise? How about helping with a food drive? Loneliness fades quickly with the sense of purpose that serving in the community can bring.

7. Encourage Spiritual Connections

If transportation or other health issues make it hard for your elderly loved one to visit their place of worship as often as they’d like, see if there are ways you can help them increase their attendance, or discuss home visits with their spiritual leaders and other members of the congregation.

Our At Home Personal Care team has a host of great ideas that can help prevent loneliness and increase social activity for our senior citizens during the holidays. Please contact us today at: (703) 330-2323.