What are Senior Services?

Senior services are helpful resources for elderly people. Senior support services may be provided free of charge or they may require payment. Common senior services in many communities include those in the areas of house repair, home sharing, adult day care, social activities, cleaning and health.

Home health care aides provide senior services in the recipient's residence. They may collect blood samples from seniors unable to get to a medical lab. Home health care aides may check blood pressure and other signs and report the information to the senior citizen's doctor.

Home cleaning senior services are provided by support aides. The services home support aides provide vary but often include house cleaning in addition to light meal preparation and laundry. These types of services are designed for seniors able to live independently in their own home, but who are too old or fragile to perform all of the household chores.

Social activities for seniors are usually available at most community centers. These activity options are often widely varied and include games, crafts and events such as dances or movie nights. Many community center senior services include bus day trips to nearby events or attractions. Community-based services for senior citizens are usually priced to be affordable and may be free to low-income elderly people.

Adult day care senior services are available in most communities. These are centers where caregivers of elderly people can drop off the senior citizen to be cared for during the day. Some adult day care centers provide basic monitoring plus social programs, while others are more health-based. A health care day center for seniors may specialize in caring for patients with a certain disorder such as Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's patients often experience severe memory loss and may wander off; professional day care for these patients can relieve regular caregivers.

Home sharing for seniors is a service offered by some communities. This senior service can help seniors who own a home and need a boarder to help pay bills or those who need to find housing. Two or more senior citizens sharing a home can split housing costs to save money.

Home repair or services such as landscaping, snow shoveling or lawn care may be provided for seniors by local church or nonprofit groups. These free senior services may be advertised in local newspapers. Companies in the professional home repair service fields often give discounted rates to senior homeowners.