Very Few are Ready for Senior Care

Like it or not, the statistics say that most of us wait until the last moment when it comes to making a good plan for senior care. I think of my own grandmother here, and realize that I’m guilty of this, too. We had an in-home caregiver for her, visiting her at my mother’s house twice a week. As far as me and my mom were concerned, this was more than enough. However, when an accident at the grocery store broke her hip and left her permanently unable to walk, the stairs at my mom’s were no longer realistic for her to navigate. We needed a plan and we needed one fast.

 

Even a little bit of planning is not enough sometimes. Senior care often starts out slow and easy. A aunt or uncle needs help getting to the grocery store once a week, or maybe they need a ride to the doctor. Most of us can add this to our schedules without any sort of major disruption to our lives. The responsibilities can easily increase over time, though. A car ride here and there can become medication management, and that can become providing supervision during the daytime, which can easily become much more intense than this. If we are not prepared for this, then it can often become an overwhelming obligation.

 

There are alternatives to this, of course. While caring for a loved one is certainly part of being in a family, it doesn’t need to be something that consumes your life. There’s help out there, and you don’t need to carry the burden all by yourself. In fact, it’s probably not beneficial to anyone–your loved one or yourself–if you do try to do it all by yourself.

 

Many of us are not fully prepared for the difficulties of providing senior care to a loved one.

 

Enlisting the help of a family member that you know and trust can be a good way to make sure that you are not wearing yourself out helping. Scheduling breaks for yourself can also help. If you do not have a family member or friend that is capable or willing to to help out with senior care, finding a qualified professional can be of great help. Even working with a respite caregiver once in a while can help you to manage other areas of life all while you supervise and lead the care for a loved one.

 

Working with a professional respite caregiver is a good way to prepare for the future, too. If your loved one’s situation does worsen, they are likely to be affiliated with a care service that can extend their services to a more permanent structure. Working with an independent caregiver can be helpful, but it doesn’t provide that same safety net that a professional caregiver that’s part of a larger organization does.

 

Preparation is a large part of senior care. Many of the plans that you will make you might never need. But having them in mind–just in case–will go a long way toward helping your mom or dad live a better life, and save you the stress of wondering what to do at the same time.

 

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