One of the hardest parts of knowing when a loved one is in need of senior care is determining when it should start. It’s very easy to look at your aging mom or dad and see that they will need a professional in-home care specialist to help them out in a year or two. It’s another thing to say that they need assistance today. Helping them to make this decision is rarely ever easy, but there are some definite warning signs for you as a family caregiver that can help you to better make this call and get your loved one the help that they need.
Be on the lookout for signs of help
Some things are more of a telltale sign that a loved one needs help than other things. For example, if your mom or dad is forgetting to pay their bills, leaving the burner on the stove on when they are done cooking, or if they are ignoring their doctors’ appointments, these are immediate signs that a caregiver would be a big benefit right away. Other signs are more obvious. If your loved one is falling down, if they are not confident that they are safe in their own homes, or if they are forgetting to take medication, or taking their meds improperly, then these signs shows that some sort of senior care is needed right away. Knowing how to figure these things out might be a little tricky, but instituting safety measures and checks of your own can be a good start. For example, creating a medication checklist that they must sign off on can be a way to monitor what is being taken and when. This is just a start, of course, but it’s a very good one.
Get another opinion
If you’re just not sure what the right path is, getting the opinion of a professional in the field is a good way to confirm your own thoughts. Many professional care services (like Paradise In-Home Care) will offer free consultation services to let you know whether or not their help is right for you or not. These consultations should be free and create no obligation for you or your family, and there should be no high pressure sales tactics. Instead, a professional opinion should give you a recommendation on the kind of care that will benefit your loved one the most, if any is needed at all.
Ask your loved one’s thoughts
This is really the first thing that you should do, regardless of what their mental health is like. For example, someone suffering from Alzheimer’s will not be able to make a good decision on their own care, but that doesn’t mean that their opinion should be discounted. It’s important to have a good idea about what professionals say the best kind of care should be for them, but you also need to get their feedback, too. If these things differ, then some difficult conversations may need to follow, but if you have their best interest truly in mind, then this is a necessary part of the process. Taking your loved one’s wants into consideration shows that you love and respect them.
Leave a Reply