There are two different schools of thought when it comes to selecting a caregiver for an elderly loved one. The first says that you should choose someone that works for themselves, that is independent, and truly loves people and being there to help them. The second says that you should go with a bigger service that has several (or more) employees because they have better resources to help your family. What both of these schools of thought are missing is that you should be looking for a caregiver that fits both of these descriptions.
These two different ways of approaching senior care are not mutually exclusive. Having one doesn’t mean that you can’t have the other. The best caregiver services out there not only have better resources than any individual caregiver could have, but they also are staffed by loving and compassionate caregivers that truly want what is best for your mom or dad.
Exactly what are these better resources that services have? Well, they will differ a bit from place to place, but a few examples are more formalized training, better insurance, background checks, a company vehicle or reimbursement for transportation to medical appointments, basic medical equipment to check blood pressure and heart rate, and many other things. These might seem like a big deal, but they are an important part of keeping your loved one as healthy as possible. If some sort of emergency were to pop up, you want your caregiver to not only know what to do, but have the things they need to help right there at their disposal. A service is much more likely to make these things possible for you and your family, and a service is much more likely to provide the training to equip a caregiver with the right skills to properly know what to do and when to do it. No one wants an emergency to happen, but when one does, you want the person looking after your family to have the correct approach to keeping everyone safe. That’s just common sense, and it’s the biggest reason why selecting the right caregiver is so vital.
So, perhaps a third school of thought is needed, one that doesn’t make compromises when it comes to caring for and providing for our loved ones. This new way of thinking about senior care should focus on getting everything that we want out of a caregiver, and then find the service with the means to make that happen. This doesn’t mean that individual caregivers are incapable of being great caregivers. There are many great individuals out there. All that this means is that you are putting the odds in your family’s favor when you find a great caregiver backed by a great service. This gives your family’s caregiver the potential to be even better than they already were to begin with. And with this way of thinking, we can minimize the chances of something like neglect or abuse from ever happening. It might be a small step, but it’s one that should give us better peace of mind.
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