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You are: Home | Preparing Meals
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Meal Preparation
Meal preparation services can benefit your elderly by providing a safe and healthy diet every day!
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How Community Companions’ meal preparation services can benefit your elderly loved one.
Meal preparation is an essential part of everyday life. This task
can be far from simple to those individuals who are elder in
years. A solution to the problems seniors often have in cooking
meals is to have a dedicated home care professional do the cooking for
them. Companions can mitigate this challenge and much more with
their meal preparation service.
Companions can do all of the grocery shopping
for a senior. They can prepare, cook and serve meals taking into
consideration all dietary requirements. Companions are conscious
and considerate of both dietary restrictions prescribed by a physician
to control blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes or other medical
conditions, and those requirements that may be a part of religious
practices such as kosher foods, avoiding pork products or observance of
lent. Since many medications
require the patient to take with food, meals are the natural times for
companions to remind seniors of to take their medications. In
this way medication assistance and meal preparation services offered by
Community Companions work hand in hand.
Household falls in the kitchen are a major danger facing our elders.
Companions can prevent some of the most common sources of injury to
seniors, kitchen related accidents. We don’t often stop to think about
it, but the kitchen is perhaps the most dangerous room in a house.
Seniors are at particularly high risk of falling victim to the perils
of the kitchen. Every year over 12 million seniors are treated in
the emergency room from kitchen related burns, falls and other
hazards. Falls in particular result in over 5,000 senior
fatalities each year. Spilt liquids, such as milk or water, can
prove to be devastating slipping hazards to seniors. In addition to
life threatening injury, falls constitute a major source of
hospitalization for older individuals, resulting in broken bones, blood
clouts and other serious medical conditions. This means the prevention
of falls should be a major concern for the well-being, safety and
health of your loved one. Companion home care cooking assistance
can dramatically reduce the likelihood of a fall impacting the life of
your loved one.
Senior
citizens are at high risk of suffering from kitchen fires without the
assistance of a responsible in-home elder care provider. As
senses such as eyesight and hearing diminish with age, older citizens
are more likely to make mistakes in setting oven and stovetop
temperatures, hearing timers or reading meal preparation instructions
and recipe cards. The shakiness and reduced motor function common in
aging individuals can result in spilling cooking oil and grease onto
the heated surfaces of a stovetop. These issues put seniors at high
risk for starting household fires in the kitchen. Sadly the
consequences of such fires all too often are not limited to mere
property damage. Kitchen fires have the startling potential to
seriously injure or kill occupants of the residence.
Gas leaks from poorly maintained stoves and ovens are a real danger to the elderly.
Such falling and fire hazards are far from the only safety issues
associated with seniors in the kitchen. Un-serviced or neglected
gas ovens and stoves can become a real asphyxiation danger. But a
gas stove doesn’t have to be in disrepair to cause such a deadly
problem. Stoves that are left on but not ignited can leak deadly
and flammable gas into a home. Seniors are at an increased risk
of such an accident, as they are more likely to have unreliable short
term memory and may turn the gas dial on and forget to light the
burner.
Consequences of food poisoning are much greater for seniors.
Food poisoning is another real kitchen hazard which seniors are at an
increased risk of encountering. Undercooked meat or spoiled dairy
products can harbor harmful bacteria. The immune systems of the
elderly are not as effective as those of younger individuals at dealing
with bacteria. This means that the elderly are not only at a higher
risk of unwittingly undercooking or using harmful ingredients in meal
preparation, but if they do make these mistakes, they suffer greater
health consequences than do younger people.
The assistance of a responsible in-home care provider can prevent all
of these real and not uncommon kitchen dangers which your loved one may
be particularly susceptible to. Companions offer more than just
practical services; they offer a peace of mind which is priceless.
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