Holiday Season 2024: A Return to Festivity Amid Health Precautions
The 2024 holiday season brings a welcome return to familiar traditions, with a sense of normalcy after the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A mix of factors is fueling this resurgence in holiday cheer and celebration. Despite the fact that many people are already planning for a normal holiday season, the holidays can still be lonely and isolating for older adults who need long-term health care. Caregivers can become like family making it more merry and joyful.
Renewed Demand for Festivities
After years of pandemic-related restrictions, people are eager to reconnect with loved ones and embrace traditional holiday activities. Families are planning gatherings, travel is rebounding, and festive markets and events are making a full comeback. This pent-up demand reflects a widespread desire to reclaim the joy and togetherness that define the season.
Easing Restrictions Enable Gatherings
The loosening of COVID-19 restrictions globally has further facilitated this shift. With travel bans lifted, capacity limits eased, and mask mandates largely removed, it has become easier for people to celebrate the holidays as they once did. The relaxed rules have encouraged families and friends to come together, making 2024 feel more like the holidays of pre-pandemic years.
Ongoing Health Concerns
However, health remains a key consideration as the flu season overlaps with the holidays and COVID-19 continues to circulate. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the flu season has already made a significant impact. As of November 2024, the CDC reports 1.6 million flu illnesses, 770,000 medical visits, 17,000 hospitalizations, and 1,500 flu-related deaths in the United States. These numbers underscore the importance of remaining vigilant, particularly for older adults, young children, and individuals with preexisting conditions.
Balancing Celebration and Caution
While the desire to celebrate is strong, public health experts recommend continuing basic health precautions to mitigate risks. Vaccinations, frequent handwashing, and staying home if feeling unwell remain vital steps to ensure a safe holiday season. Communities and families can find a balance between joyful gatherings and mindful health practices.
As the 2024 holiday season unfolds, it promises to blend a renewed spirit of festivity with a cautious acknowledgment of ongoing health challenges, ensuring celebrations remain joyful and safe for all.
Struggling During the Holiday Season
The fact is some older adults struggle during the holiday season, and those issues have increased since COVID-19. An increased sense of loneliness takes the cheer out of the holidays. Plus, the holidays have always reminded older adults of lost loved ones. Plus, as health declines, the holidays can remind someone of new illnesses that limit their mobility or ability to enjoy the holiday season.
The right caregiver can make all the difference for an older adult, especially during the holiday season.
Professional home care providers are aware that the holidays can not only bring joy but can bring sadness as well. Adult children may live afar or, for other reasons, are not spending holiday time with an older parent or family member. These home care providers are usually the first ones to notice mood changes in the care recipient.
Christina Ram, the franchise owner of Amada Senior Care in Tucson, AZ, says that quality home care providers can play an essential role in providing additional compassion, love, and support for the elderly during the holiday season.
We are acutely aware of the distinct individual needs of individuals we care for daily. We understand the holidays may provoke very different feelings in each senior; some may thoroughly enjoy this time of year, which we can help embellish and enliven their environment with their favorite pastimes and traditions.
Not Everyone is Happy and Joyful
Ram says loneliness is a big concern, especially during the holiday season when everyone is expected to be happy and joyful. She says some care recipients may feel lonely and alone during the holidays.
This is an opportunity to communicate and learn more about how we may support care recipients during this time. The caregiver can provide travel support if the care recipient is physically able and wants to visit family.
Ram explains that a caregiver may also reach out to the family about visiting their loved one or scheduling an online video meeting so the senior can feel more connected to the family.
Some older adults don't have family members to support them during the holidays. This presents a more significant challenge for care providers to identify anything that brings back pleasant memories.
Ram says compassionate and engaging conversation often leads to discovering those memories. Music, decorating, baking, crafting, and holiday trivia reenergize a care recipient and get them in the holiday mood.
It takes a special person who can really empathize with the aging adult—someone who can observe, listen, and feel what that senior is feeling. With that as the basis of the recipe, the caregiver adds energy and enthusiasm to the mix to enrich the senior's life with old and, maybe, new ways to celebrate the holiday season.
Holidays Have Religious Meaning for Many
The holidays, for many people, have religious significance. A Pew Research study revealed that 65% of adults ages 65 and older said that religion is very important to their life, with another 25% saying it was somewhat important.
Some care recipients might be able to go to church or synagogue. Sometimes, a priest, minister, rabbi, or other religious may be able to visit older adults at home or even in a long-term care facility. Making those arrangements can benefit the care recipient and help put more meaning into the holiday season.
Places of faith, like churches, temples, and mosques, bring like-minded people together to share and celebrate. Older adults will often find comfort if they can go to a religious service during the holiday season. There are often activities available for older adults that are available.
Caregivers or family members, if available, should encourage them to attend and join them. Area senior centers and other community groups also have get-togethers throughout the year, but during the holidays, it can bring more fun and joy to the care recipient.
While Christmas is the big holiday following Thanksgiving, several religions share this time of year. These include Hanukkah, Diwali, and Kwanzaa.
Don't Forego Decorating
Older adults who live alone may feel they shouldn't bother decorating, especially if they have limited guests other than the caregiver. The results can be added sadness.
It is hard to ignore the holiday season. You see it all over the TV. When the senior gets out, they will see the "holiday spirit" wherever they go. Encourage your loved one to decorate their home. If the family cannot come by to help decorate, the caregiver will probably be more than willing to help.
Many caregivers, without being asked, will encourage the care recipient to get out the holiday decorations to make the home as festive as possible to avoid added depression during the holiday season.
Don’t Ignore COVID-19 During Holiday Season
As Thanksgiving approaches, families, friends, and their caregivers should consider how older loved ones will spend the holiday leading up to Christmas and New Year's. Keep in mind that even though the COVID-19 virus crisis has lessened, older adults and those with pre-existing health conditions are vulnerable to the virus and other illnesses.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra says that the updated COVID-19 and flu vaccines are essential.
COVID-19 vaccines have brought us through the worst of the pandemic – saving millions of lives, keeping countless people out of the hospital, and providing peace of mind for the country.
Older adults and those with pre-existing health problems should be vaccinated, and it is even more important if they will be visiting people or going to holiday parties or religious services during the holiday season. Caregivers and long-term care facilities will usually keep up with vaccinations.
Seniors want to be as normal as possible, especially during the holiday season when memories of past holidays are front and center. Quality caregivers become friends and companions since they spend more time with the care recipient than anyone else. In a way, the caregiver becomes part of the extended family. This bond will lead to a better quality of life for an older adult with ongoing chronic health problems.
Finding Quality Care for a Loved One
Does your loved one have a caregiver or live in a long-term care facility? Are you happy with the quality of care they are providing? The right person or facility can make a huge difference for your loved one.
Long-Term Care Insurance claims increase right after the holiday season, and so do requests for in-home caregivers and facility admissions. When the family sees how their older loved one is doing, they often discover they need help and assistance.
Not all caregivers are good at their job. Not all assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and their staff are caring and companionate. Finding the right caregiver or facility for a loved one will significantly improve the quality of life for an older adult with chronic health or aging issues.
Those with Long-Term Care Insurance will have the resources to pay for their choice of quality care options, including in-home care. Many LTC policies include case management to help the family develop an appropriate care plan and find quality caregivers and facilities.
Finding quality long-term care services for your loved one doesn't have to be overwhelming. The LTC NEWS Caregiver Directory offers access to over 80,000 care providers nationwide, available at no cost. This comprehensive database covers a wide range of long-term care services, simplifying your search for qualified caregivers or care facilities.
Easily locate providers in your loved one's area and review their qualifications and services offered. Let the LTC NEWS Caregiver Directory relieve the stress of finding top-notch long-term care, ensuring your loved one receives the support they need.
Find Quality Long-Term Care Services Near You
LTC NEWS can help process claims from any Long-Term Care Insurance policy. In partnership with Amada Senior Care, a nationally recognized in-home healthcare agency, LTC NEWS ensures that you and your loved ones receive the benefits from an LTC policy so your loved one gets the quality care they deserve. This service comes at no cost or obligation - Filing a Long-Term Care Insurance Claim.
These LTC NEWS Guides are a good resource when you need to find quality long-term health care for a loved one:
Understand that it can be lonely during the holiday season. For someone older or with chronic health problems, this loneliness is more significant and can complicate health problems. Don't forget about the elderly, including neighbors, during the holiday season.
Have You Thought About Your Future Aging?
The holidays are also an excellent time to review your retirement planning, including your plan to address the costs and burdens of your future aging.
Aging has consequences on your family and finances. Make it easier on your loved ones and ensure quality caregivers by planning ahead of time.
Many people include a Long-Term Care Insurance policy in their retirement plan. These policies provide tax-free benefits to access quality care options. The benefits will protect your 401(k) and other assets and ease family stress. Most people obtain coverage in their 50s.
Rising Costs of Long-Term Care
Long-term care costs are rising dramatically, and self-funding for these expenses has become increasingly impractical. According to the LTC News Cost of Care Calculator, the median monthly cost of in-home care is over $5,000, while the base cost of assisted living facilities averages more than $4,500 per month before adding surcharges that can increase that cost by as much as $2000 a month. Nursing home care can exceed $10,000 per month, depending on the location and level of care required.
Long-Term Care Insurance is medically underwritten, and every insurance company has its own rules. Most people obtain coverage in their 50s when premiums are much lower, and their health is usually much better and stable.
Be sure to utilize the expertise of an experienced, independent Long-Term Care Insurance specialist to help you navigate the options and provide you with accurate quotes and comparisons from all the top-rated insurance companies that offer long-term care solutions.
The holidays can be a happy time. Friends, family, and caregivers can make it better for an older adult and less depressing.