Oxford Aunts enables older people to live independently in their own home with the right support completely tailored to their needs. As a Live-in carer for our clients, you have more time to provide one-to-one support and set aside dedicated time to cook with your client. But why is cooking so important?
Connecting with others
Cooking is excellent for forming a strong relationship with your client, as the involvement of going out shopping for the ingredients, following the recipe and measuring the ingredients can be exciting. It is also great for your client to boost cognitive fitness and brain health. Even if you are preparing the meal yourself, your client will appreciate the hard work and effort that goes into it.
Trigger happy memories
Food is emotive and for older adults it can trigger many positive memories of family dinners and social gatherings. When cooking for your client or loved one certain scents and sights are a powerful trigger. The best way to help your client to revisit these fond memories is to get a recipe from their family member or pick out their favourite dish and recreate this together or independently.
Stress reduction
Baking can be incredibly useful for reducing stress, as repetitive techniques such as stirring or chopping can be meditative. Also, evidence shows that kneading dough can reduce levels of anxiety and finishing what you created can increase happiness.
Improves Appetite
As you age, you can experience a decrease in appetite, that is why it is important to have a nutritious balanced diet to avoid illness, depression and dementia. Cooking and preparing meals for your client increases appetite. When cooking together, it creates a sense of excitement to eat the food created.
Money Saving
Cooking homemade meals can save money compared to eating or purchasing pre-packaged meals as it reduces costs by shopping for the ingredients yourself. Using fresh ingredients, and no preservatives improves the quality of food and even better, you can save the leftovers to eat another time.
Want to learn more about the other benefits of being a live-in carer?
If you are keen to know more about the benefits of working as a Live-in carer, click here. You can also contact our recruitment team for more information on 01865 519 044.
