3 Tips For Driving An Elderly Loved One To An Appointment
If you have an elderly loved one that needs some help getting to an appointment, you might find yourself tasked with assisting them and ensuring that they’re able to safely get to whatever appointment they have. However, with many elderly people, there are a few more things that go into this process than just showing up and driving them to where they need to be.
To help ensure that you’re able to assist them as they need, whether they live alone or are in an assisted living facility, here are three tips for driving an elderly loved one to an appointment.
Prepare For Transfers
When you arrive at your elderly loved one’s home, the first challenge in taking them to their appointment is getting them into the car.
For many elderly people, mobility issues can make it hard to just jump in and out of a car like they used to. But luckily, there are things that you can do to help make this easier on them.
One thing you can try is to put a piece of plastic down on the seat so that once they get sitting down, they can more easily move around the seat into a safe and comfortable position. Moving the seat as far back as possible will also help to give them more room to maneuver themselves in.
Go Over Questions With Your Loved One
If your elderly loved one still manages their own medical decisions, they’ll likely have all of the information they need for their appointment. But if you’re coming to the appointment to give assistance, it will be worth your while to go over questions for the doctor or other provider with your loved one before you get there.
You can use your time in the car to go over these things together. Then, any questions that you have or that your elderly loved one has, make sure you write them down so you remember to ask them during the appointment.
Decide If They Need You In The Room Or Not
Just because your elderly loved one needs your help getting to their appointment doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to be there during the appointment. But in many instances, having you there at the appointment can be helpful and necessary. So before the appointment, make sure you speak with your loved one about whether or not they need or want you to come into their appointment with them.
By talking about this beforehand and figuring out what needs to be done, you can ensure that there’s no awkwardness about this when you get in with the doctor or other provider.
If you’ll be taking your elderly loved one to an appointment soon, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you prepare for this.