Elder Care Observances: Women’s Eye Health and Safety Month

Elder Care in Weston MA

Your sense of sight is precious, something that you utilize all day, every day to interact with the world around you. This sense is something that you use so often that you likely do not even think about it. For many seniors, however, this sense is not always there for them and will gradually worsen as they get older. This is especially true for women, who experience two-thirds of the cases of visual impairment, blindness, and other eye problems that occur each year.

April is Women’s Eye Health and Safety Month. This health observance is set aside to raise awareness of the eye health and safety risks that women face and how they can avoid these issues as they get older. This is the perfect opportunity for you to find ways that you can protect your mother’s eyes throughout the course of your elder care journey with her.

Use these tips to help keep your aging mother’s eyes healthy and safe:

• Keep up eye exams. Just like it is important for your mother to go to her regular physician for checkups, it is important that she gets her eyes checked regularly as well. She should visit the eye doctor at least once a year. If she has other medical conditions that may impact eye health, including eye diseases, she may need to visit more often.
• Use proper eye hygiene. Keeping her eyes clean is an important part of maintaining her eye health and protecting her vision. If she wears makeup, be sure that she washes her eye makeup off every night before going to bed. Makeup can get into the eyes and cause irritation, infection, and abrasions. If she wears contacts, be sure that she utilizes the proper products to clean them and to rinse her eyes.
• Wear proper glasses. If your parent needs to wear glasses, make sure that she wears them at all times. Squinting or straining to see, especially trying to read small print or to watch TV can damage her eye muscles and further worsen her vision.
• Wear proper makeup. If your mother likes to wear eye makeup, make sure that she is careful about what she uses. Look for makeup designed for sensitive skin or that is considered safe by ophthalmologists. Avoid mascara that has fibers in it or eye shadow that has glitter or shimmer, as both products contain small particles that can get into the eyes and cause damage.
• Wear sunglasses. Just as your mother needs to protect her skin from the potentially damaging rays of the sun, it is important that she protects her eyes as well. If she is going to be out in the sun, she needs to wear sunglasses to prevent damage. Look for glasses that have brown or blue coloration of the lenses. These filter out the most rays and guard against the most damaging types of light. For the most benefit, choose glasses that have large sides that cup around the face to prevent the light from coming in from the sides.

Source
http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/good-eyesight
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/publication/aging-and-your-eyes
http://visionsource.com/blog/can-eye-makeup-cause-eye-problems/
http://www.visionaware.org/blog/visually-impaired-now-what/more-women-than-men-have-vision-loss/12