Why and When Should Your Senior Wear a Cloth Face Mask?
With new recommendations to start wearing face masks, your senior might be a little confused about why they’re important and when she should wear one. Going over this information with her can help lessen the confusion and convince her that it’s a good idea to wear one if she does go out.
Cloth Face Masks Offer a Layer of Protection
Senior Care Drexel Hill, PA: Wearing Face Masks
Cloth face masks aren’t perfect, but they do offer a layer of protection against germs that your senior might encounter when she’s out in public. They also offer protection to other people if your senior may have been exposed to coronavirus but is asymptomatic herself. Surgical masks and N95 respirators should not be used by the public because those are needed by medical professionals and are in short supply right now.
Masks Remind Your Senior to Stop Touching Her Face
Masks serve another purpose. They can be an incredibly helpful reminder to your senior to stop touching her face. People in general tend to touch their own faces a lot more than they realize. This is part of why hand washing is such a vital part of avoiding illness and infection. Wearing a mask prohibits your senior from being able to transfer germs from her hands into her nose and mouth.
Masks Are Useful Out in Public or Around Other People
The primary place for your senior to wear her cloth face masks is when she’s out in public. But they can also be handy when she’s going to be around other people in her own home. Senior care providers can help your elderly family member still with a variety of needs in her home, and they’ll likely be wearing masks. It’s a good idea for your senior to wear one as well.
A Mask Is No Substitute for Social Distancing
Something that’s really important for your senior to understand about cloth masks is that wearing a cloth face mask is no substitute for social distancing. She does still need to maintain a distance of at least six feet from other people when she’s out in public.
Cloth face masks are something that your senior does need to add to her virus protection plan as soon as possible. The novel coronavirus is so easily transferred from one person to another that so many people don’t even realize they have the virus until they finally develop symptoms. By that point, they’ve possibly encountered a great many other people.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Senior Care 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