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Thoughtful Ideas to Boost Senior Wellness This Holiday Season

The holiday season fills many people with a sense of comfort, happiness, and home. It’s also a time to enjoy the company of others, whether it be family, close friends, co-workers, or even strangers!

However, many others, including older people, are alone over the holiday season. In 2023, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) reported that up to 41 percent of Canadians aged 50 years and older were at risk of social isolation during the last weeks of the calendar year.

The best present you can give an older loved one is your time, but there are also holiday gifts that will warm their hearts and contribute to their overall wellness when you’re not there. Here are some of our favourite gift ideas for those special older people in your life.

Tablet

Tablets from popular brands such as Apple, Amazon, Acer, and Samsung can be an excellent source of entertainment and communication for older people. Load brain teasers, word puzzles, and other gaming apps to help keep the mind sharp and engaged. Music apps allow them to access their favourite playlists, internet browsers keep them surfing the web, and language learning apps make picking up a new linguistic skill easy and fun. Perhaps best of all, most tablets are comfortable with video communication software such as FaceTime and Skype, so your older loved one can enjoy face-to-face contact, even when you’re far away.

Digital photo frame

The faces of loved ones can warm the heart of someone lonely or isolated. A digital photo frame is a thoughtful gift that displays their favourite memories on a crisp, easy-to-see digital screen. Setting the digital frame up is easy, and before you know it, your loved one will be enjoying a beautiful carousel of photos that will make them smile every time.

Meal delivery subscriptions

When older people live alone, have mobility issues, or find shopping, cooking, and cleaning up too physically taxing, they might stop preparing nutritious meals for themselves. The gift of a meal delivery subscription will help them access the nutrition they need to stay healthy and active. Your loved one can choose which “heat and eat” meals they want, catered to their dietary and lifestyle needs before they’re conveniently delivered to their door.

Fitness tracker

Whether your older loved one is currently active or wants to start a new fitness journey, a fitness tracker is the perfect gift to help them measure their activity. Most fitness trackers count steps, check heart rates, and even monitor sleep quality. Fitness trackers come in many shapes and sizes, but older people might benefit from one with a large, easy-to-read screen, emergency alert functionally, and an easily charged battery.

Smart home devices

Many older people, especially those with vision impairment or mobility issues, can benefit from having a smart home device installed. Smart home devices work like voice-activated assistants that manage a wide variety of daily tasks, such as turning lights on or off, making phone calls, or setting reminders to take medications. Since it uses voice commands to work, your loved one won’t have to worry about fiddling with new technology to operate the device with confidence.

Heated blanket

As we get older, our bodies become more sensitive to extreme temperature changes, making it hard to maintain warmth when the temperature drops. A heated blanket can help your older loved one be warm, comfortable, and relaxed, whether lying in bed or lounging in their favourite chair. The gentle heat they provide can also relax muscles and stimulate circulation, which can help alleviate muscle pain, arthritic discomfort, and joint stiffness. Heated blankets come in a variety of colours, and many offer adjustable heat settings and overheating protection.

Audiobook subscription

Reading is a wonderful lifelong pastime. However, many older adults find enjoying their favourite books challenging due to the natural effects of aging. You can help your loved one continue reading with a subscription to an audiobook service such as Audible. Listening to an audiobook is an excellent substitute for traditional reading, providing mental stimulation, education, and entertainment. The narrated stories can also be enjoyed while one performs household tasks or indulges in other hobbies.

Professional home care services: The gift of independence

Most older people want to live independently for as long as possible. Professional in-home care services can help give your loved one the support they need so they can live at home surrounded by familiar items that recall their most cherished memories.

Whether they need specialized nursing care, help with meal preparation, companionship, or other support, CareHop will ensure that your older loved one is happy, engaged, and well-cared for.

Because preserving an older adult’s independence is one of the greatest gifts of all.

Quality in-home elder care services in Toronto, Etobicoke, Mississauga, and Brampton

CareHop specializes in providing safe, professional eldercare services, including on-demand Alzheimer’s disease and dementia care, that bring peace of mind to families who need support.

We also offer other in-home elder care services such as homemaking and meal preparation, personal care, activities, and casual companionship that help ensure your loved one gets all the professional care they need.

Contact us today for a free, no-obligation discussion to discover how we can help you with safe, cost-effective eldercare solutions.

About the Author

Michael Lu is the founder of CareHop. He started the business inspired by his Grandmother to look at ageing as a happy experience to bring sunshine into the homes of others.

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