There are a lot of new experiences happening now with the coronavirus pandemic. One that your senior may be experiencing is self-quarantine. What does a self-quarantine involve and how should your senior go about quarantining herself?
Stay at Home as Much as Possible
The biggest part of self-quarantining is that your senior is staying at home as much as possible. That means that she’s not running errands like she used to and that she’s limiting her exposure to other people to as few as possible. Ideally, your elderly family member wouldn’t go anywhere at all unless it’s absolutely necessary for her to do so.
Limit Outside Visitors
Something that people sometimes forget about a self-quarantine situation, though, is that this also means that other people shouldn’t be stopping by. This doesn’t mean that your elderly family member should completely isolate herself. That’s not a healthy response at all. Even though she needs to limit in-person contact with other people, she can still reach out. Guests should “visit” via other means instead, like video chats or phone calls. In-person visits can be risky. One exception to this is anyone dropping items off or home care providers helping your senior.
Continue Basic Precautions
Basic precautions, like using social distancing, washing hands frequently, and disinfecting household surfaces all need to be done during self-quarantine. If someone is dropping items off for your elderly family member, the safest thing for them to do is to leave those items somewhere safe, such as the front porch, without coming in direct contact with your senior. Any time that your elderly family member touches something, especially something that has come from outside her home, she should wash her hands afterward.
Stay Alert for Symptoms
The biggest reasons for self-quarantining involve ensuring your senior is protected from exposure to the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. You and she need to be aware of which symptoms she’s experiencing, especially a fever, shortness of breath, and coughing. Contact your senior’s doctor right away if she’s experiencing any of these symptoms. Her doctor may have additional instructions for your senior, especially if she’s got underlying health issues.
If your senior is self-quarantining because she may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus, she may need to do so for 14 days at least. Her doctor would have given her those instructions. If your senior hasn’t talked to her doctor yet and believes she was around someone sick with Covid-19, she needs to call her doctor’s office right away.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering caregivers in Centennial, CO, please contact the caring staff at SYNERGY HomeCare today. Call us at (303) 756-9322.
