October is Contact Lens Safety Month, and if your elderly family member wears contact lenses you need to become familiar with what they require and how to help her with them. Contact lenses are safe for people of all ages to wear as long as your senior is following all of the basic safety steps involved in caring for the lenses and for her eyes. Here’s some more information that can help.
Get Her Vision Checked if It’s Been a While
Just like other types of prescription lenses, it’s vital that your elderly family member has the correct prescription for her contact lenses. That means a visit to the eye doctor, which is even more crucial if your senior hasn’t been in a while. An old prescription can leave your elderly family member battling things like blurry vision, headaches, and unnecessary eye strain.
Make Sure She’s Wearing the Right Contact Lenses for Her
Beyond the right prescriptions, it’s also important that your elderly family member is wearing the right contact lenses for her needs. That means not only determining if hard or soft contact lenses are right, but also whether options like bifocal contact lenses are a good idea. Her eye doctor can help with all of these determinations.
Stock up on the Right Products to Keep Lenses Ready to Go
Some contact lenses are really low maintenance. Disposable lenses that can be worn overnight might be just the thing for your elderly family member’s needs. But she still needs to have saline solution, a storage container, and other items for keeping her contact lenses safe, clean, and ready to wear. Double check expiration dates on products used on contact lenses, because they do have a shelf life.
Stay Alert for Signs of Trouble with Contact Lenses
Your senior might have worn contact lenses for years with no trouble, but that doesn’t mean that can’t change for her. If your elderly family member is noticing that she’s experiencing irritation in her eyes when she wears her lenses or she’s showing other signs that her eyes might be infected, she needs to talk with her eye doctor. Ignoring these signs can lead to much bigger trouble.
Line Up Personal Care at Home to Help with Contacts
Eventually, your elderly family member might need some hands-on assistance with her contact lenses. This is the perfect time to bring in personal care at home. The types of help that personal care at home can offer include things like helping with maintaining her contact lenses, assisting with showers, and helping with eating. Personal care at home understands that it can be frustrating to need help with these sorts of activities, so they’re there to make your senior’s life easier.
Sticking to a solid plan for keeping your senior’s contact lenses clean and ready for her to wear is the key to making sure that they’re as safe as possible for her. Talk to your senior’s eye doctor about specific steps you can take with her lenses to help her the most.
If you are considering personal care at home in River Oaks, TX, for an aging loved one, please call the caring staff at At Your Side Home Care. We will answer all of your senior care questions. Call today: (832)271-1600.
Our Certified Nurse Aides, 24-Hour Live-in Assistants and Home Health Aides are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We also provide the security and confidence of 24-hour Telephone Assistance, so fast, reliable help is always available when it's needed. To learn more about our homecare services see our homecare services page.
Different people need different levels of homecare. To meet the requirements of our clients, At Your Side Homecare maintains consistent staffing levels of caring professionals. Homecare service is available for as little as a few hours a week, or as many as 24 hours a day, seven days a week
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