How to Recognize When the Health of Aging Parents is Going Downhill
The health worries of parents can be a concern for adult children moving ahead with their lives. While early health problems can be manageable, noticing signs of parents going downhill can help caregivers be proactive in dealing with parents declining health.
If you are a person with a health concern, you can feel like you are in an equally challenging position. You do your best every day only to have a new health issue crop up that you did not expect to crop up and that you must deal with.
Being a caregiver and a person with health problems has its own set of day-to-day challenges.
Navigating the health complications of aging can mean caring for a loved one and interacting with doctors, hospitals, health systems, nursing homes, and other providers.
Three things to consider if you want to recognize when the health of aging parents is going downhill include:
1 Early warning signs of health problems that anyone can miss or not see as important one month or year from now
2 Tips for dealing with the emotional worries and losses associated with being a caregiver or a person with health problems
3 How to identify aspects of declining health—yours or the health of a loved one
Early Warning Signs of Health Problems for Caregivers
Let’s start with early warning signs that may not initially appear as health problems. These are red flags for everyone and can be a sign of a caregiver’s or parents health going downhill.
Any change in habits, personal interests, or positive or enjoyable routines can be an early warning sign. Change in routine is especially relevant for caregivers who give up their time to care for other people.
Caregivers used to go to the gym. They used to spend time with friends. Eating healthy was a positive habit. Now, eating means driving through fast food restaurants or eating boxed dinners.
Stressed-out caregivers may drink more, eat more, gain weight, or use substances. Being a caregiver is extremely stressful.
It is easy to pass on good habits and pick up other habits that may not be good. It is important to
assess stress levels, health, and daily activities to preserve caregiver well-being and health.
With any small change, caregivers may not notice any difference in life for a month, three months, six months, or a year. At some point, the effects of changes in habits will be noticeable.
Weight gain, exhaustion, headaches, stomach upset, a lack of sleep, a rapid heartbeat, challenges in relationships that used to be easy, and difficulties in work and family life may feel overwhelming.
Caregivers might look back and wonder what happened to the person they used to be. Feelings of resentment and anger may become an everyday experience. At this point it’s important to recognize that the health issues seen in aging parents can easily happen to adult children and others who are their caregivers.
Signs of Health Problems for Older Adults
A similar experience can happen to people with health problems who have been healthy all their lives. Difficulty
performing daily tasks, also called activities of daily living, is one of the first signs that elderly parents may need help when health may be starting to go downhill.
Older adults may trip and fall, resulting in bruises or broken bones.
Hip fractures can be life-threatening.
As a result, activity levels may be purposefully reduced to avoid another injury. With age, injuries take more time to heal.
There may be greater difficulty going up and down stairs, becoming out of breath more easily with physical exertion, and generally feeling exhausted are all signs of potential health problems.
Instead of being curious to know what is causing changes in health or what happened as the result of an injury, many people reduce daily activities. Over time, doing less has a major effect on life.
Getting out of the habit of going to clubs or groups can negatively affect health and mental well-being. Caregivers and older persons may be less interested in maintaining friendships.
When care responsibilities become overwhelming, it’s easy for
caregivers to lose sight of what is important. This includes activities and relationships that were once a priority.
Stress experienced by caregiving responsibilities or worry about health problems can result in more negative moods. Sitting around and watching television all day may become a new routine. Caregivers and the people they care for can become isolated and depressed.
Your world and sphere of friends become smaller. For caregivers and persons experiencing health challenges, remaining physically or socially active and engaged with friends and hobbies takes work. What changed in your life that resulted in the current situation?
For caregivers, a shift in your routine to care for someone else may be the change that is resulting in new health problems.
For persons with health problems, a physical or mental change likely occurred. Memory loss that progresses to
dementia can result in difficulties with physical activities, falls, and overall weakness.
The good news is that if you are here and recognize the concern, you can change it.
How to Cope With the Emotional Aspects of Changing Health
The next thing, number two, now that you have recognized a problem is to learn how to deal with and
cope with the emotional aspects of recognizing these changes that mean your life isn’t ideal. That there may be parts of your life going downhill.
There may be days when getting out of bed may be the greatest accomplishment. How can one keep going when the going gets rough?
If you are a caregiver doing a little or a lot, you can become dependent on the thought that someone else needs your help. That they can’t do without you. That they can’t get better or improve.
While this may be true for some people with very advanced health conditions, what if your thoughts and discussions with the person you care for changed to something like saying this:
“I am helping temporarily with the intention that you want to maintain or improve your health so that you don’t need my help on an ongoing basis. I’m not here to help you do less. I’m here to motivate you to do more.” Helping others and empowering others to do their best helps caregivers do the same. These conversations of temporary helping and expectations of others improving or getting better don’t happen enough.
Learning to set boundaries is a critical caregiver skill that can be learned.
Think about the place you work. Employees are expected to do their jobs, be good team members, and continuously grow and learn.
Why should actions in personal lives, relationships, and health be any different? Everyone can be curious, a lifelong learner, be kind to others, and set boundaries around things you don’t want in your life.
Self-care is a priority at all ages.It’s easy to be sucked into the problems of the world and the
drama of other people. Their drama does not have to be your drama. Watch where you place your mental energy and your thoughts.
You can focus on problems, or you can focus on solving problems, continuously learning, and growing, and bringing good things into your life. You can be peaceful, happy, and healthy in your actions and thoughts.
Last, let’s talk about how to deal with declining health. You may be a caregiver watching a parent’s health going downhill. You may be the person with one health problem after another. Neither position is easy because both can be filled with worry, loss, and grief.
How to Do The Best You Can When Watching Health Declines
All you can do is your best. Each day, you can start over and determine what your best looks like. Ask these questions:
- From a mindset and emotional perspective, does my best look like doing everything I can today to be healthy, think healthy, and do healthy activities?
- Does my best look like being kind to a spouse, aging parent, or grandparent who might be suffering?
- Have I set boundaries for myself about what this looks like?
- Have I set goals for myself?
Am I missing out on life’s opportunities?For example, as the caregiver. I will do only what my loved ones cannot do for themselves. I will be encouraging and positive. I will listen to complaints and will remind that complaining has no positive outcome. Complaining without action to resolve the concern only leads to more negativity.
As a person who needs care, I will do what I can mentally and physically to make this the best possible day—even if I am limited due to a lack of energy or not feeling my best. What bright spot can I create today in my life that will make me happy?
The other part of the mental and emotional aspect of declining health is to recognize the
challenges posed by frailty, failure to thrive, and geriatric syndrome.Warning Signs of Aging Parents Health: Frailty, Geriatric Syndromes, Failure to Thrive
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There are many tell-tale signs that the health of parents is going downhill. In simple terms, frailty is difficulty walking or moving around physically. It is also described as poor balance, weak muscles, low physical endurance, and low physical activity.
The Impact of Frailty on Day-to-Day Health and Activities
Frailty can happen when a person does less and less and less. Parents whose health is going downhill is often first affected by physical weakness and related difficulties.
Frailty can be impacted by a variety of health problems – heart or breathing problems, arthritis, diabetes, dementia, cancer, depression, liver or kidney disease. So if your life has changed in any way, making you frail – what can you do to improve your physical strength?
Geriatric Syndrome
All of the conditions that a person has, which can increase with age, can be a factor for geriatric syndrome, which leads to the question of when to worry about an aging parent’s health.
If a loved one is experiencing geriatric syndrome, there can be frequent trips to the hospital, admissions to a nursing home for physical rehabilitation, and then returning home. There can be more instances of physically being unable to care for oneself.
Bathing, dressing, going to the bathroom, and performing daily activities that once were easy. What changes are you seeing in a loved one or yourself?
Failure to Thrive
Failure to thrive is the next condition that causes worry about an aging parent’s health going downhill.
We discussed failure to thrive earlier. It gradually happens over time and is specific to health, and one may not notice until the issue has progressed further than one would like.
Failure to thrive can be related to frequent infections, such as urinary tract infections or pneumonia, frequent falls, balance problems, hip fractures, pressure ulcers on the skin, losing weight, and poor nutrition.
All these aspects can lead to individuals being unable to care for their daily needs or continue living independently at home.
Whether you are a caregiver or a person who needs care, be attentive and vigilant to physical and mental health. Because changes in habits or daily activities can be gradual, they may not be noticed until they become big problems.
When to worry about aging parents’ health, is when you start to notice any small change or changes. Rather than ignoring the change, mention that you notice the change and ask what might be happening.
The same applies to caregivers, who must be attentive to minor changes. This means noticing anything different from before. Be curious and investigate these changes and their causes to act early and be proactive.
While thoughts of parents’ health going downhill can be worrisome, there is so much that can be done to reverse this trend if noticed early, and there is an interest in getting better. The same can be said for caregivers whose health is negatively affected by caregiving responsibilities.
Every day, look for ways to improve your physical and mental health. Small daily habits can lead to positive long-term changes that can stay with you for the rest of your life.
Looking For Help Caring for Elderly Parents? Find the Information, Including Step-by-Step Processes, in Pamela’s Online Program.
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