Tips for Caregivers: How to Provide Quality Home Care for Aging Individuals
You chose to become a caregiver for a friend or family member. There’s a comfort in knowing your loved one is in safe hands. You already know what they like or dislike, their physical or emotional needs, and with what daily chores they need help.
Months down the line, you are physically and mentally strained. Your life has changed completely. You are part nurse and part secretary, scheduling appointments, taking care of paperwork, juggling insurance issues, and still putting a smile on your face every time you walk through that door. Stay at Home Home Care Agency in Philadelphia values and understands how hard caregiving can be. Here are some of our tips to help you balance and navigate your caregiving journey.
Self Care
You must take care of yourself to provide quality home care for your senior. If you constantly feel exhausted, have difficulty sleeping, irritability, anxiety, or depression (or more than one), it’s a good sign you are facing burnout.
When was the last time you did something just for you, something that gives you joy? Many people answer that they can’t remember. They put their entire life on the back burner, leading to self-neglect.
Tips for Caregivers: Returning to Balance
You become a better person when your life-work balance is in good condition. By extension, your ability to provide quality care for an aging individual improves. You can continue caregiving if you wish without losing yourself in the process.
Begin by reaching out for help and exploring your resources. There are online groups of individuals who understand how you feel and represent a library of information on the best ways to maintain high-caliber care. It doesn’t take much time, but the results are palpable.
Prioritize daily tasks for both you and the person for whom you provide care. Organization is a way to decrease the feeling of being in the center of a whirlwind. Remember, the work isn’t going anywhere.
Encourage the individual to do everything they can for themselves. They need to remain involved in their well-being. It’s easy for them to become reliant on you, which isn’t good for either of you. It’s okay to say “no” or “not now.”
Getting a Much-Needed (and Well-Deserved) Break
There is the possibility you qualify for family leave for a set period. You’ll be able to put down the “job” part of your plate and redirect your attention to providing greater socialization, for example. Eventually, you’ll have to return, but you can implement a plan before then.
The Option to Hire a Home Care Agency in Philadelphia, PA.
Time and time again, we at Stay at Home connect with caregivers who are simply stretched beyond their means. The thought of a facility isn’t ideal, so the next best step is hiring some help. Stop feeling guilty. You want the individual’s quality of life to be the best possible, which means having rested companions.
That’s where our services step in. We pride ourselves on having a compassionate, knowledgeable culture. We attract quality personnel because we are one of the best-paying agencies in Philadelphia. Our aides are thoroughly trained, and we work with you to find the right person. If you’d like more information, you can call our Huntingdon Valley, PA office at 215-355-9999. Our email is info@sahhomecare.com, and we offer a contact form as well.
We are happy to answer your question and provide some ideas that work for the present.