Your senses are how you interact with the world around you and many people take them for granted, simply using them as needed without really thinking about it. For your elderly adult, however, their senses might not be as strong and reliable as they once were, negatively impacting their daily life and their functioning.
January is Glaucoma Awareness Month. This is the ideal opportunity for you as a family caregiver to learn about this eye disease, how you can help reduce the risk of your parents developing it, and how to care for them properly if it does develop during their later years.
What is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma is a medical term that refers to a cluster of diseases that impact and cause damage to the optic nerve.
Some things that you should know about glaucoma include:
- Approximately 1.9 percent of the population of the United States aged 40 and over are currently living with glaucoma
- This number accounts for 2.7 million aging adults throughout the nation
Glaucoma Symptoms
Glaucoma has no symptoms in its early stages, including no effect on vision.
Over time, glaucoma will gradually take away the peripheral vision and develop tunnel vision. As the disease progresses, the field of vision will become smaller until blindness occurs.
Glaucoma Treatment
As with many other medical conditions, early detection is vital to how your elderly parent manages their glaucoma.
Though medications and other treatments cannot restore any of the vision that might have been lost already to glaucoma, they can help to slow the progression and protect your elderly loved one’s vision for the future.
This makes it critical for you to keep up with your loved one’s eye health needs, which includes making sure that they get to the eye doctor at least once a year or more often according to their recommendations. This allows the doctor to properly monitor your parent’s eye health and condition so that they can identify the earliest signs of glaucoma and get your aging parent on the proper course of medication and treatment that is right for them.
Contact Care Options for Kids for Home Health Care Services
Starting homecare can be one of the best decisions you can make for your aging parent throughout your caregiver journey with them. When your loved one is suffering from a condition that negatively impacts their functioning such as glaucoma, the personalized services of an elderly home care services provider can be instrumental in helping them to adapt to the changes that have occurred due to the condition and provide support so that they can continue to live an engaged, fulfilling quality of life as they age in place.
This can include helping them modify their home and daily life in ways that will help them reduce safety risks that might arise due to their changes. When it comes to glaucoma, this homecare provider can help your senior parents avoid falls, prevent other dangers, and find ways to continue enjoying their favorite activities to support their quality of life in their later years.
If you or an aging loved one are considering home health care services, contact the caring staff at Care Options for Kids. Call today at (888) 592-5855.
Sources
https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/glaucoma
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/glaucoma/symptoms-causes/syc-20372839
https://www.visionproblemsus.org/glaucoma/glaucoma-map.html
