Independent Living Facility Promoting independence in self-care can provide older adults with the capability to maintain independence longer and can leave them with a sense of achievement when they complete a task unaided.
Older adults that require assistance with activities of daily living are at a greater risk of losing their independence with self-care tasks as dependent personal behaviours are often met with reinforcement from caregivers.
It is important for us to ensure that measures are put into place to preserve and promote function rather than contribute to a decline in status in an older adult that has physical limitations.
As caregivers we need to be conscious of actions and behaviors that cause older adults to become dependent on them and need to allow older patients to maintain as much independence as possible.
We provide information to the older patient on why it is important to perform self-care and we allow them to see the benefit in performing self-care independently.
If the older adult is able to complete self-care activities on their own, or even if they need supervision, we encourage them in their efforts as maintaining independence can provide them with a sense of accomplishment and the ability to maintain independence longer.
