If you’ve spent any time on our website over the past few years, you’ve heard me talk about the potential of a senior care shortage. The condensed version of this problem rests with the fact that the Baby Boomer generation was the biggest population surge to hit the United States at the time. Right after the Second World War ended, families began to grow rapidly in size. Now, those born during this time are hitting their senior years and many of them are in the beginning stages of needing help to get through each day safely.
COVID has made this problem a lot worse a lot more quickly than expected. The care shortage was felt in full force in some parts of the country. Because of how poorly the situation was handled in some instances, seniors were needlessly exposed to the virus. Some lost their lives as a result.
In-home care has widely been flouted as a solution to the care shortage, and for a lot of people, it’s been a godsend. But even this side of the business has seen a shortage of care workers. This is especially true for services that were attempting to transition to this kind of care more recently. In-home care can help, but only if it’s implemented correctly.
The care shortage has hit hard during COVID. Knowing how to help your family can help you avoid complications.
Each situation is different. Your area might never experience a care shortage. This is true for a lot of parts of the U.S. and the rest of the world. Some parts are more burdened than others. However, there are things that we can all do to help make this a little easier for the people closest to us.
First, be aware of what resources are available in your community. If there are a large number of care services, you might not need to worry too much about this. However, if there isn’t then it is good to know this before care is ever needed. This gives you an opportunity to take precautionary steps. That might include looking for care in other communities nearby, relocating, or something else. But regardless of what you do, the more prepared you are ahead of time, the greater the chances that your loved one will find the right care to meet their needs quickly.
Next, look at your loved one’s needs with scrutiny. Are there types of care that are just not right when it comes to meeting those needs? If so, you can eliminate them as choices right away. A lot of the problems that we’ve seen with care shortages are because some portions of the care business are more greatly burdened than they need to be. Look at nursing homes, for example. They have been stretched past their limits recently, and some of this is because people that didn’t actually need the intensive level of care that a nursing home provides were residing there simply because it was the choice that families thought they were supposed to make. Finding the right care to meet a loved one’s needs might be able to prevent this from happening.
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