Home Care Services Fort Mill SC
Technology has given us extraordinary amounts of information and the ability to connect with people and businesses that span the globe. This ease of access, however, has come at a significant cost. Everyone knows it effects our social interactions. Look at the group of people seated at a restaurant table in a beautiful setting, all texting away on their individual cell phones. Friends and family send emails and text messages instead of picking up the phone or walking a few blocks to have a chat. What may not be so obvious is the effect it has upon the elderly.
Technology and the Elderly
The economic trends involve closing post offices, community centers and libraries or, at the very least, cutting their hours. Cuts in labor cost must be made as more and more people order their postal products online, and electronically download books and magazines. Community meals, which used to be a weekly tradition in many towns, are few and far between with a new company opening up almost every day promising to deliver your favorite hot meals from restaurants to home in under thirty minutes. A visit from Meals on Wheels may be an elderly person’s only personal human connection in any one day.
The truth is, life gets busy.
The other truth is, time is all we really have. When you find yourself searching for something specific on the world-wide-web and then getting pulled into another site—and then another—noting what you’d anticipated would take 15 minutes has now found you sitting at the computer for two hours. Perhaps an hour of this time could have been spent with your aging parent. Technology has invaded our homes. Turning on the television requires reading a 20 page pamphlet on how to use the remote. Cell phones offer a vast array of apps, many of which elderly people know very little about. Spending this hour sharing how to use their in-home technology with your aging parent can help them feel more connected and the time spent together is priceless.
When You Don’t Have Time
The last thing you want to add to your already busy life is guilt. Humans are only given two hands and two ears. If you’ve got twenty people vying for those items and your feeling pulled in a dozen different directions, consider asking for help. If family and friends have similar busy lives, consider a home care services provider. These individuals from in-home care agencies, have been carefully screened and trained. They’ll provide light cleaning, grocery shopping, meal preparation, and help with bathing and dressing. More importantly, they provide what’s missing in our technologically advanced society—personal interaction and heart-to-heart connections.
