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Using National Healthy Skin Month to Prioritize Skin Care for Seniors

National Healthy Skin Month is a great time for seniors and family caregivers to assess skin care needs. Personal care at home can help aging adults take better care of their skin and stay healthier overall.
Personal Care at Home in Herndon, VA
Personal Care at Home in Herndon, VA

November is National Healthy Skin Month, but it’s especially important for seniors to pay attention to their skin all year round. Healthy skin impacts seniors physically, but it also affects self-esteem. Personal care at home offers a way for seniors to get hands-on assistance that they may need with personal care tasks like skin care, dental hygiene, and more.

What Is Personal Care at Home?

Personal care at home involves a range of services that focus on grooming, hygiene, and overall well-being for aging adults. Traditional elder care services may also help with personal care, but they primarily focus on household tasks, assisting with transportation needs, and helping in other ways. Personal care providers help seniors to adopt routines around bathing, skin care, hair care, and other grooming needs. Seniors feel cleaner and more comfortable while they experience better self-esteem and improved dignity.

Healthy Skin and Aging Adults

Senior skin goes through a lot of changes. It thins, becomes drier, and is often more prone to injuries and infections. Healthy skin is something seniors need for a variety of reasons. The skin is the first line of defense against environmental stressors and bacteria. But it’s also linked to mental well-being and good self-esteem. When seniors are able to take pride in their appearance, they experience better moods and quality of life.

Prioritize Hydration

Staying hydrated is a good idea for seniors for a variety of reasons, including skin health. Proper hydration helps skin to stay elastic and moisturizes skin from the inside out. Personal caregivers can help seniors to remember to sip water throughout the day. They can also help seniors to make sure to eat foods that are hydrating.

Combine Gentle Cleansing and Moisturization

Younger people might exfoliate and use a variety of different skin products. Aging skin doesn’t need all of that. Gentle cleansing with fragrance-free cleansers is a better way to start. These gentle cleansers don’t strip natural oils from the skin, which it needs in order to stay better protected. Using lukewarm water avoids damaging the skin as well. Following up with a moisturizer helps to lock moisture into the skin, preventing skin from drying out, cracking, and becoming painful.

Don’t Forget Sun Protection

Sun protection is the final step, even for aging skin. This is something seniors need even on cloudy days or when they’re planning to stay inside most of the day. Broad-spectrum sunscreens with an SPF of 30 or higher protect the skin from both UVA and UVB rays.

Regular Skin Checks

Aging skin faces a lot of different challenges, such as moles that might change or wounds that aren’t healing as well as expected. Regular skin checks help caregivers to spot potential issues quickly so that seniors can get help with identifying what is going on. These skin checks don’t have to be long and complicated, either. Simple, fast checks after bathing and during pampering sessions are easy to add into routines and are really effective.

Personal care at home helps seniors to get the assistance they need with caring for their skin during National Healthy Skin Month and every other day of the year, too.

If you or an aging loved one are considering Personal Care at Home in Herndon, VA, please contact the caring staff at Access Home Care Inc today! Call (703) 765-9350
Access Home Care provider in Arlington, Alexandria, Leesburg, Reston, Herndon, Manassas, Ashburn, Falls Church, McLean, Lorton, Springfield, Woodbridge, Fairfax, Virginia and the surrounding communities.
Anna Mensah-Nti, MSN-Ed, BSN, RN Founder
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