You’ve been helping your aging parent in their home for months. You stop in at least once a day to make sure they are safe, have eaten, and that they remembered to take their medications. You also spend some time each week taking care of their finances. You’re feeling tired, stressed, and it’s becoming hard to find time to spend with other family members or friends. You’re thinking about hiring a home care provider to help, but you’re concerned about the cost.
-Is it time to hire someone?
-How can you know?
Determining If You Need Help…
The right time to hire a home care provider is a personal choice. Think about what you’ve been doing for your parent and whether their needs are likely to escalate. Think, too, about your own physical health. If you’re helping your parent to get up from chairs or transferring them from a wheelchair into bed, you risk injuring yourself. The stress involved in being stretched too thin can also be harmful to your health.
Your emotional health is also important. If spending all of your free time caring for your parent is leaving you feeling sad or disconnected from others in your life, it may be time to get some help. Family caregivers are at great risk for depression because of the pressure of being a caregiver. This is especially true in cases where the older adult needing care has dementia.
Another indicator that you may need help is that your personal relationships are suffering. If you rarely see your spouse or if you find yourself irritable with those you love, hiring a home care provider may be able to alleviate some of the tension.
What Kinds of Things Can a Home Care Provider Do?
Home care providers are able to do almost anything for your aging parent that you can. Some of the areas they can help in are:
-Providing Personal Care: Home care providers can do things like help your parent to bathe, dress, brush their teeth, and other grooming needs.
-Health Assistance: They can remind older adults to take medications and help with scheduling medical appointments.
-Housekeeping Duties: A home care provider can clean, cook, shop, and do laundry.
-Quality of Life: Home care providers can be companions, engage in conversation, and arrange activities.
If you’ve decided it’s time to find a home care provider, hiring through an agency has several benefits. When you hire a home care provider through an agency, the agency will have done all of the necessary background checks and interviews as necessary. Should your parent’s regular home care provider be ill or go on vacation, the agency can provide a replacement, ensuring your parent is never without care.
Have questions about hiring elderly care in Lahaina, HI? Contact the caring staff at All Care Hawaii today. Call us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
Call Oahu?(808) 206-8409? or ?Maui?(808) 664-3853.
Sources
https://www.caregiver.org/hiring-home-help
https://www.caregiver.org/depression-and-caregiving
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