Using House Rules to Structure Your Elderly Care for Your Loved Ones

Elderly Care in Amagansett NY

From the time you were a small child, through when you lived with your first roommates in college, until now with your own partner and children, house rules are a reality of life. Rules establish boundaries, control behavior, and ensure everyone fulfills their responsibilities properly. Creating your own set of “house rules” is a great way to structure your elderly care for your loved ones.

Using special “rules” to guide your efforts enables you to structure your activities, show respect for your parents’ needs, and ensure that the elderly health care services provider who you choose for your parents is able to integrate herself into your care routine as smoothly and successfully as possible.

Just like any other house rules, the rules you come up with to structure your elderly care plan for your aging loved ones are a personal choice that must be determined based on your parents’ particular needs, personality, and opinions. They may require some tinkering as you try to put them into practice, so make sure that you maintain your flexibility and be willing to make adjustments as necessary to ensure the rules are creating the effect that you desire for your seniors’ care.

Use these ideas to inspire you to formulate house rules to structure your elderly care for your loved ones:

• Respect privacy. Regardless of your parents’ care needs, they are still individuals who deserve their privacy. This also goes for you and any care provider who is in the home. Respecting privacy should include things like always knocking on closed doors before entering, respecting modesty when handling sensitive care tasks, and avoiding listening in on conversations. Of course, there may be times when this rule must be overlooked for safety purposes, but you should make as much of an effort to maintain it as possible.

• Be respectful. Showing respect is an important part of building and maintaining a relationship. This starts with basic things such as what the care provider should call your parents, language you do not want used by anyone in the house, and manners you want utilized such as taking shoes off when entering the home. This also includes issues such as who the care provider is allowed to discuss issues with, such as other family members or neighbors, and how she should handle attempted involvement from people not on that list.

• Maintain communication. Keeping up communication with your loved ones and their elderly health care services provider ensures you remain an active part of the care whether you are actually in the home with them daily or not. Create rules that regulate how often you would like to communicate with the care provider and how you would like to communicate. Whether it is calling you once a week, sending you text messages throughout the day, or only getting in touch in an emergency, clarify the proper communication avenues and timing at the beginning of the relationship.

• Cooperate. Set rules about how far in advance you want the care provider to request time off, how you would like her to let you know, and what she should do if an emergency arises and she needs to be off at a different time.

If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring professional caregivers in Amagansett, NY, call the caring staff at Artful Home Care today at 631-685-5001.