The Right Home Care Assistance Can Help You and an Elderly Loved One Face the Future with More Assurance

Home care assistance is about more than a visiting nurse. Yes, home healthcare aides are invaluable to aging men and women, especially those who have medical issues or chronic health problems. A home health care provider can assist with administering medications, checking vital stats, and conferring with the individual’s doctor, but “home care” involves a wide range of supports.

The right home care assistance can help seniors face a difficult future with more confidence knowing that they are in good hands and will have the help necessary when it is needed most.

Many family members act as caregivers for their aging parents, but they don’t have any experience doing this. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t, but never discount the value that a professional, experienced home care aide can bring to the table at times like these.

What will the future hold?

Each person is unique. So are their health challenges. A 70-year-old diagnosed with stage II cancer might handle chemotherapy or other treatments differently than another 70-year-old. One might live for another 10 or 20 years while the second only survives for one or two more.

This just means we don’t know what the future will hold. Two people who are very similar in their health and physical stature may have completely different paths for their future. Without knowing the future, you want to prepare for the best and worst-case scenarios.

In both of them, having home care assistance available is going to provide comfort and security to those seniors.

You need to understand your limits as a family caregiver.

Most family caregivers overestimate their abilities or underestimate the time requirements for this type of job. In fact, most family caregivers don’t even think of it as a job, but it is.

It should be treated like a job. If you have a job, or a career that you love, what do you do? You get there on time, don’t you? You are there at the expected time every day. You may even work late, if needed, or come in early.

Do you do that for your elderly mother or father? If they call you first thing in the morning and you aren’t expected to be there until the evening, but they need assistance before you head off to work, do you offer it? Do you have time for that?

What about when you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed with so much going on in your life? You need to understand your limits as a family caregiver and when you do, you will recognize the value that home care assistance through an agency offers.

Determine the aging senior’s goals.

What does your mother or father want to do at this stage in their life? Do they just want to sit around and wait for each day to end? Do they prefer just waiting around for you to stop by and visit with them?

For most people, that’s not enough. Even elderly men and women have goals, needs, and desires. They want to live. They want to experience life. They don’t want to give up on it.

Unfortunately, because they may need assistance with some Activities of Daily Living, they don’t get the opportunity to continue enjoying life and living it to the full, at least not on their terms and not all alone. Home care assistance can help them focus on their goals and pursue them to the best of their ability.

Know your own goals.

You have goals, too. You don’t want to spend the best years of your life chasing your tail and giving up everything else to support your elderly mother or father. It’s not that you don’t love them, but you have a life to live as well.

When you want to pursue your own goals, your own aspirations, your own dreams, turn to a home care agency and you will discover that both you and your aging loved one can maximize quality of life and still be there for one another.

If you or an aging loved one are considering Home Care Assistance in Southampton, NY, call the caring staff at Artful Home Care today at (631) 685-5001