How Can Your Senior Parent Help During Adopt a Shelter Dog Month?
Senior Care Drexel Hill PA
October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month. This is an ideal opportunity for your senior parent to give of their time, energy, and love to help dogs that are living in shelters and waiting for their forever home. There is a wide variety of benefits that your elderly adult can possibly enjoy by having a pet in their life. These can include lower blood pressure, reduced stress, improved cardiovascular health, reduced depression, anxiety, and loneliness, and better physical health. For some senior adults, however, owning a dog is simply not an option. Whether it is due to physical challenges, cognitive limitations, or housing issues, if your aging parent is not able to have a dog of their own, they can still make a difference in the lives of shelter dogs.
Encouraging your parent to get out into the community and make a difference for shelter dogs that are waiting for a home of their own is a wonderful way to boost their mental and emotional health. These activities can give them many of the same benefits of owning a pet, as well as the sense that they are relevant, important, and still impactful for the world around them.
Some of the ways that your elderly parent can make a difference during Adopt a Shelter Dog Month even if they are not able to adopt a dog of their own include:
• Donating food for meal delivery programs. Most areas have a meal delivery program that involves volunteers bringing food to members of the community who are not able to get out and get food on their own. This is a wonderful way that your parent can make a difference to these people. Many of these people, however, also have dogs in their lives that they adopted. Consider donating pet food to this program so that they can also deliver these meals to the animals in need.
• Donating supplies to the shelter. The majority of animal shelters operate primarily on donations. This means that they rely on the help of others in the community to be able to care for homeless animals. Encourage your aging parent to gather supplies such as food, treats, leashes, blankets, and toys that they can donate to the shelter for the animals to use. Check the website of the individual shelter to find the list of items that they need the most.
• Volunteering time in the shelter. Your parent can also give of their time and energy to help shelter dogs. Shelters rely on volunteers to walk and play with dogs. Your parent can engage with these animals regularly to improve their lives and to get a boost for themselves as well.
Senior care can help your parent make the most out of having a dog in their life or the activities that they do to engage in the community around them. With the personalized approach to care, assistance, and support that they can get from a senior home care services provider, your elderly loved one can enjoy a quality of life that is more active, engaged, and fulfilling even as they manage their own needs, challenges, and limitations. This can include providing reliable transportation, offering support and assistance tailored to their specific needs as they engage in activities outside of the home, and even giving them companionship that motivates them to get out and enjoy life more.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Senior Care Services in Drexel Hill PA, please contact the caring staff at True Direct Home Health Care today.
Doc, as he is called by everyone - staff, patients and clients - first experienced home health care and hospice care while as a colleg student at King's College as he cared for his mother every day while she first battled COPD and then lung cancer. It was during this time that he came to understand that caring for a patient was more than just clinical expertise.
"Admittedly, my strongest attribute is my communication skills and the simple fact that I love to help people. Even the smallest thing you can do for someone really can mean so much to them long term. In fact, it could change them forever. That's what providing quality personal home health care should be all about."
In his spare time, he cooks for homeless shelters and children's music and arts events. He also is highly involved in his local youth sports soccer academy as a coach and Board member.
- How Home Health Providers Offer Education Amidst Physical Health Changes - March 5, 2024
- Spring Activities for Seniors - February 21, 2024
- How to Help an Older Loved One with Cataracts? - February 6, 2024