Stepping into the world of elderly care services can be a daunting task. With a wide variety of services to choose from, it can be easy to just pick a random option that may not fit your loved one’s needs. With nearly 70 percent of seniors needing support and other long-term services, though, it’s important to understand what services fit them best.
In-home care can be a lifesaver. In fact, it’s preferred by around 90 percent of seniors. It can also help set your mind at ease while allowing you to be a loving child, not just a caregiver. Here are just a few of the many benefits to having elderly home care.
Stay at Home
The biggest benefit to hiring an elderly caregiver is that your parent can stay in their home. Instead of being in a facility, they can be at home surrounded by memories and love. The setting helps promote healing and comfort. It can lead to a higher quality of life overall for your parent.
Home can be a comfort to you, too. It’s a happier environment than many senior live-in facilities. Going to your parent’s house is going to be a better experience for your children as well. Instead of navigating a bland space, they get to spend time with their grandparent in a home full of character.
Maintain Control Over Life
Facilities often have strict rules to protect seniors. Unfortunately, that also ends up restricting what your loved one can do. They may no longer be able to make weekly social events that have kept loneliness at bay. Visiting hours and lists make it hard to socialize with anyone on the outside.
Living at home means that your parent can have far more control over their own lives. They can still keep inviting friends over every Thursday for a card game, go out with the girls for a weekend brunch and get the care they need.
Less Stress
When seniors are able to stay in their homes, they avoid a variety of stressors that can increase health risks. They don’t have to worry about downsizing or having to get rid of things they enjoy. They also don’t need to deal with the stress and worry about packing, moving and getting used to a new environment. As this can mean exposure to germs, staying at home can quite literally protect your parent’s well-being.
There is also less financial stress as, on average, elderly home care is far less expensive than retirement homes. For a lower cost, you can have someone around your parent at all times. Their caregiver will be dedicated to them as opposed to watching over multiple patients.
One-on-One Care
In facilities, our loved ones don’t receive the attention they need. Instead of having a dedicated caregiver with them, they have to wait their turn. That can lead to parents trying to take care of an issue themselves and falling in the process. Many of those falls are preventable by clearing clutter, recommending better lighting and giving personalized care.
With the one-on-one care, a caregiver is there for whatever your loved one needs. Caregivers can often spot these hazards quickly and will work with you to make your parent’s home safer.
Help with Daily Activities
There are a number of activities that everyone has to carry out each day just to function. These include getting to and using the bathroom, eating, moving around, getting dressed and bathing. Together, these are called Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). As people age or get ill, they may need help carrying out these activities.
Pride can prevent a parent asking for help with these things from their children. There are many reasons–from worrying about being seen as a burden to wanting to maintain the parent-child role. Bouncing between caring for a parent to being their child can be hard for both you and your parent. It often feels easier to get that assistance from an elderly home care aide than family.
Get Active
When people age, they often are less active. A caregiver can help to keep your parent to a schedule that includes being active. Exercise can help improve mobility, heart health and brain function. Being active has also been shown to help improve mood and keep depression at bay.
Eating Well
One of the big worries about parents staying at home without care is food. Are they eating enough? Are they eating healthy foods? Do they have enough food? With an in-home companion, they can get anything from reminders about eating to help with cooking.
Caregivers can help provide the proper nutrition for your parent and ensure that they are eating enough. By preparing meals, caregivers can help limit salt and sugar intake while making sure seniors are getting whole grains.
Medication Schedule
Another one of the big worries is making sure that parents are taking medications on time and as prescribed. When seniors don’t take medications correctly, they are 76 percent more likely to see their health worsen. Since the risk of adverse reactions is higher, there are also concerns around falls, hallucinations and more from medication use.
Caregivers can help make sure your parent is taking medications as prescribed by their physicians. Should your parent experience a side effect that requires medical treatment, your caregiver can help get your loved one to the hospital or contact a physician.
Keep Fido Around
Seniors often have to rehome their pets if they move into a facility. There are very few places where you can bring a pet that isn’t a service animal or, maybe, a bird. With your parent still at home, they can keep and love on whatever furry or feathered animals bring them joy.
Pets can help lower blood pressure, promote fitness and ease both anxiety and depression. Animals are incredibly comforting and can provide unconditional love, regardless of what someone is going through. They’re also great at helping create a routine! Even if someone can’t do all the activities, a caregiver can help take care of pets, from feeding them to taking them on walks if need be.
Combat Loneliness with Companionship
Loneliness not only increases someone’s chances of depression–it can be physically painful. It also leads to higher stress levels, raising a person’s risk of heart attack or stroke by up to 32 percent.
Having a caregiver there will help your parent feel less lonely. After all, caregivers aren’t just there to provide for someone’s physical needs. They’re also there to be emotional support. Companions like caregivers can also stave off dementia, lower heart issues and prolong your parent’s life.
Better Medical Care
Elderly people are at high risk for depression, especially if they have one or more chronic illnesses. Sadly, because many of the symptoms overlap with dementia and Alzheimer’s, depression in the elderly isn’t often diagnosed correctly. If someone isn’t able to be as active as they once were, that adds to the risk. Other conditions like upper respiratory infections need to be watched closely as seniors are prone to pneumonia.
Thankfully, an elderly caregiver will be able to keep an eye on any symptoms your parent is experiencing. By monitoring symptoms, there will be a more complete history of how your parent is feeling in the event that medical care needs to be sought. If the caregiver also helps your parent at a medical appointment, they can help keep track of provider instructions. This gives your parent the best chance to adhere to what doctors are asking them to do.
Safety
As people age, they may start forgetting things. Kitchen appliances can be left on, posing a fire and injury hazard. Living alone can be incredibly vulnerable for seniors. Doors go unlocked. People may see that your parent lives alone and try to take advantage of them.
With someone there helping to care for your parent, you can rest easy. You’ll be able to know that basic safety items are being addressed, like locking doors. Having someone there will deter anyone looking for a house to burgle or a senior to steal from.
Flexibility
As time goes on, needs change. When choosing a facility over home, they may not be as willing or able to make changes. That can lead to a need to move your parent to another space, which brings a lot of unneeded stress.
The beauty of in-home care is that the caregiving services you use can change with your parent’s needs. If there is a major medical event or surgery, many home care providers offer both post-operative care and in-hospital assistance.
Someone Always There
If you should need it, you can always have someone around with a live-in caregiver. While it is more expensive to have 24-hour care, it also brings more peace of mind. An elderly caregiver can assist with day-to-day living tasks while making sure the home is safe for your loved one.
That means that you can sleep through the night soundly knowing that someone is watching over your parent. You know that your parent isn’t trying to get up in the middle of the night without assistance or at risk of falling down. They’ll have someone they can ask for help instead.
Separates Caregiving from Family Roles
Often, it falls to children to care for their parents. Worried about the costs, they try to do it all themselves. Alone, it may not be too much, but balancing life caring for parents and children while working is hectic. It can be easy to fall into a rut where you compartmentalize in order to get things done, and then your parent may feel like more of a burden than a loved one.
When you have elderly care services, though, that’s not the case. You can still care for your parent without being the one providing that care. It gives you the chance to play the most important role in your parent’s life–their child.]]>