One major thing to be on the lookout for when selecting a senior care service for an elderly family member is adaptability. Because a senior citizen’s health can change so quickly, you also want to ensure that their care has a large degree of flexibility associated with it. Not only does this help ease the burden of constantly needing to find new care, or at least be considering it, it also establishes a degree of continuity and stability to your loved one’s life. The importance of this cannot be overstated. One of the hardest things for the elderly to grasp is their decline of health and all of the repercussions that come along with it. Adding security like this to their life helps far more than you might think.
Rather than thinking about this from a person in need’s perspective–which is a very important point of view to take into account–for a moment take the time to think about providing care from a caregiver’s point of view. When you are able to spend weeks, and then months or more, with just one individual, a bond is created. When you help this person throughout the day a few times per week, helping them make meals, doing little household tasks for them, talking with them, sharing time and emotions with them, you begin to know them on a deeper level. You feel a stronger attachment to them. No, they might not be a family member in the strict definition of the word, but they become someone that you grow to love, to trust, and to look forward to seeing on a daily basis. Being a caregiver is hard work, but that doesn’t mean that it is not something that can be done with love and grace.
Now, think about being a caregiver where there is a lot of turnover, either in the caregiving staff or with those that are receiving help. Those close bonds do not ever have the chance to grow. You might have a genuine love of people and have a special calling to help the elderly, but something is always going to be missing from the quality of emotional care that you can give if these bonds are not there. Unfortunately, the only real way for a caregiver to form a close bond with the person that they are caring for is to spend time with them.
Applying this lesson to your loved one’s care is not easy. Different people have different needs, and continuity of care is not always possible. However, starting out with the type of care that is easiest to keep continuity moving forward with is a good idea for most to consider. Beginning with in-home care is the best way to accomplish this. As long as your caregiver is a professional and is highly trained, then this is far easier to accomplish than you may have thought. Just be sure to take your own loved one’s personal situation into account before going with any care option. This will be the best way to ensure a high quality of care.
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