4 Reasons Why Your Senior Parent Should be Reading

By Marlene Diaz | May 8, 2016 |

Home Care in Seattle

When it comes to seeing to the home care of your aging parent, there are many things you should consider. You want their quality of life to remain high. That means they’re able to bathe, wash, use the bathroom, eat, dress, do everything they used to do. The only difference now is that they may need some assistance to complete these tasks. But when it comes to home care and your parent’s quality of life, there are other things to take into consideration, too. For instance, how much do they enjoy their daily life? Just getting through life’s daily functions isn’t enough. Life is meant to be enjoyed at every age.

May is Get Caught Reading Month! Get Caught Reading Month is a national campaign designed to remind people of all ages how wonderful it is to read. There are few forms of entertainment as affordable and rewarding as reading. You can do it anywhere. And with a book and a little imagination, you can go anywhere and be anything. For the hours your loved one spends reading, anything is possible.

Here are 4 more reasons why books are so wonderful for your loved one:

Mental Stimulation – Books provide hours of mental stimulation. It’s like exercise for the brain. It helps cognitive skills and comprehension. Studies have shown that reading may also delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Stress Reduction – Books are an excellent source of stress reduction. No fancy tests needed here. When your loved one is reading, they’re leaving their life behind for a little while, along with whatever stresses they may experience each day. If they’re homebound, when they open a book they can travel to Prague, to Hawaii, or anywhere else they’d like to go. They get to be someone else for a while and solve a murder mystery or find a stolen artifact.
Improves Memory – There are a lot of things going on in books. If your parent enjoys a good mystery, they’ll have to remember the names of the characters, places the characters visit, and who the possible suspects are and why they are suspects. Reading exercises the brain in a way that’s pleasurable, so it doesn’t feel like exercise at all.
A Cure for Loneliness – When your loved one reads, not only are they transported to the fictional world of the book’s author, they get to meet an exciting cast of characters and interact with them for the length of the book. If your parent has been suffering with feelings of loneliness and alienation, reading a book could help them feel less lonely.

There are many benefits to reading that your loved one can experience. Consider adding books to their home care plan as a fun, easy, and affordable means of entertainment.

If you or an aging loved one are considering home care in Seattle, contact the caring staff at Hospitality Home Care today. Call us at (206) 966-6552.

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Marlene Diaz

Care Supervisor at Hospitality Home Care

Marlene brings to Hospitality Home Care's Care Supervisor Team an unprecedented level of passion for caring for others and a wealth of knowledge and understanding in the care services field. Marlene has worked in the healthcare field for more than 15 years in a variety of settings including, adult family home administration, home care HR supervising and working with specialty populations including dementia, mental health and developmental disabilities. Throughout this time Marlene has also maintained her caregiver credentials that she obtained as a teenager because, while her knowledge is best served helping to train caregivers and assist families to get the care they need, her heart is most fulfilled when she is providing care to others. When she is not in the office, you will most likely find Marlene caring for her family, or spending time with her friends.