How Can Sensory Changes After a TBI Can Impact Your Elderly Parent?

Many people take their senses for granted. It is simply part of your day to use your sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. If those senses are compromised, however, it becomes clear just how important they are and how much they impact daily functioning and interaction with the world.

if you are a family caregiver for a senior who has suffered a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, you may have noticed that they are struggling with changes to their senses. These sensory changes can not only be unpleasant for your parent, but they can actually put them at risk. Acknowledging these changes can help you to address them in a way that supports a higher quality of life and helps prevent potentially dangerous complications.

Some of the sensory changes that your elderly parent can experience after TBI include:

• Ringing in the ears
• Increased balance problems
• Dizziness
• Difficulty identifying objects
• Problems with hand-eye coordination
• Double vision
• Blind spots
• Bad smell that is not related to anything in the area
• Bitter taste
• Challenges with sense of smell
• Itching, tingling, or stinging sensation in the skin

These sensory changes can be extremely unpleasant for your parent, which can diminish their quality of life. Some changes, however, can be dangerous in different ways. Changes in smell and sense of taste can put your parent at increased risk of contracting a food-borne infection or illness, while balance and vision problems can increase the risk that your elderly parent will suffer a fall, making them vulnerable to other serious injuries. It is important to help your parent recognize these changes and learn to adapt to them to avoid dangerous consequences.

If your parent is struggling with particular health challenges and complications, or you feel that they would benefit from additional support and assistance, now may be the ideal time for you to consider starting elderly care for them. An elderly home care services provider can be there with your aging parent on a customized schedule to ensure that they have access to the highly personalized services that they need to support a happy, healthy, comfortable, and safe quality of life as they age in place.

These services are tailored specifically to your senior’s challenges and limitations and can include safe and reliable transportation to where they need and want to go, assistance with personal care needs such as bathing, toileting, and dressing, meal preparation, and companionship.