If you and your family have decided to care for your elderly, frail or disabled parent at home you already know that it’s going to be a major challenge and complete change of life, for you and your parent.
You’ll experience a lot of ups and downs as you enter these uncharted waters, since none of us are ever fully prepared for this role of caretaker to our parents, and at some point you’re going to have to reach for practical assistance to ease the pressure on your parent and the family.
CareChamp has made reaching for this type of assistance easy, providing you with the services of professional, highly trained caregivers. They will be available to step in for you on a flexible, part time or full time basis.
They also tailor the care plans of each patient in a way that makes it financially possible for any family to rely on relief when the family needs it most.
Under the current economic climate it’s virtually impossible for breadwinners to put jobs or careers on hold in order to become a full time caregiver to their loved one, which creates a high level of stress for you and your family to maintain a good standard of living, while caring for your parent.
What a caregiver does, over and above the assistance they’ll give your parent, is to give you the peace of mind that knowing your loved one is in the hands of someone you can trust with the health and safety of your parent while you’re at work.
Even if you work part time, or are able to stay at home in order to care for your parent, there’ll come a time when you really need to take a breather, to gather your own reserves of strength. Taking these breathers in order to look after yourself and your family has a positive impact on your parent and the family.
Being caregiver to a parent will be one of the most demanding roles you’ll ever have to play, and you need to be strong, mentally and emotionally in order to play this role in a way that retains a good relationship between you and your parent.
Compassion and patience will be qualities you’ll need to nurture in order to deal with the frustrations and fears that come from caring for an elderly, frail or disabled parent, but aside from this, there are ways to make it easier on all of you.
Here are 6 tips that may help you, your parent and the family in caring for your parent at home:
1. Even on the most difficult days, it’s important that your parent not feel that caring for her or him is a drag. Rather let them know that you love and respect them so much that caring for them is important to you. Your attitude to a responsibility so great is going to determine the quality of the time your parent is with you.
2. Emotions are often at war as the roles reverse and leave you caring for a parent as they cared for you when they raised you, and it’s going to be a lot easier on your relationship if you accept right from the start that losing independence is as difficult for your parent as it is for you. What happens during the good times and trying times will have a great impact on your relationship, which makes it well worth knowing that it won’t be a bed or roses from the start.
3. Knowing your limitations is also very important to the quality of your relationship with your parent as you care for him or her, but it’s a learning curve for both of you, which needs to be taken step by step in order to create a good balance for you all.
4. Having to give up their independence is hard enough for your parent without still having to feel that he or she is no longer of any use as a result of their frailty or disability. Let him or her in on some of your decisions so that they feel that their input is still important to you.
5. Don’t treat your parent as if they’re children, unless your parent is suffering from dementia, let him make decisions about the things that matter to him in daily life. There is always something gran or grandpa can make or do for your children, which brings a sense of joy and belonging to them all.
6. If you forget to take care of yourself things will go downhill quickly. Depression is as much a risk for you as caregiver as it is for your parent whose world has also changed dramatically, which should make taking care of yourself a top priority too. Having a caregiver to help out allows you the time you need to recharge your batteries, to take the family away for a weekend or to get out for the day to refresh you energy levels
Contact CareChamp today to find out more about putting together a flexible plan that will enable you and your family to take much needed breaks from being caregiver, especially if you’ve become sole caregiver!