How to stay in touch with your elderly relatives during lockdown
The coronavirus lockdown may last for many months and like a lot of people right now, I’m trying to care for an elderly relative who has to self-isolate and lives alone. My mum still lives independently, but for many families they are no longer permitted to visit their family living in a nursing or residential home.
The over-70s were among one of the first groups to have to self-quarantine. As so many of us now know, quarantine can be a lonely experience, especially if you live miles away from your family and they do not have access to the internet.
My mum has Alzheimer’s Disease and everyone who usually supports her has stopped visiting. Daily contact with friends and family, trips to the shops and walks in the park were what kept my mum’s spirits lifted and her condition manageable. Now, as I am my mum’s carer, I am her only visitor and every day, we sit outside her flat (weather permitting) 2 metres apart and I try to cheer her up with family news.
Unfortunately, because of my mum’s condition, she is finding it more and more of a challenge to manage technology and now can’t use the phone or read texts on her mobile. I’m lucky that my mum can still live in her own home and I’m near enough to see her, but many of my friends’ parents are in nursing homes with no visitors allowed.
A video message compilation is a great way to stay in touch and guaranteed to bring happiness to your loved one, whatever the occasion. Now is a time when hearing from friends and family could really make a difference to their mental health.
Creating a video message is really easy to do. Just get in touch with your family and ask them to record a short message on their phone. They can video a message individually or as a family group and then we can put all the messages together in one video, so it will seem like a big family reunion. You can add your loved one’s favourite music and why not include some family photos and really cheer them up? It’s a message that they’ll be able to play again and again and will definitely lift their spirits until you can visit them again. If they don’t have access to a tablet or computer, a memory stick can be delivered to their nursing home, which can then be played on their TV.
