What Does Companion Care at Home Do for Family Caregivers?

For the most part, companion care at home is about helping seniors to get the social interactions that they need. This offers a lot of much-needed assistance to aging adults, but it also helps family caregivers immensely. Because caregiving can be so overwhelming, family caregivers need to have as many tools as possible to help them relieve stress and burnout. Having companion caregivers visit seniors is one such tool.

The Challenges Family Caregivers Face

Family caregivers support seniors in every aspect of their lives. They often are the primary source of emotional support for seniors while also offering assistance with daily tasks. They help to coordinate care for seniors, particularly when seniors have a variety of appointments and other care needs cropping up. Family caregivers can quickly find themselves overwhelmed, even in the beginning when seniors may not need nearly as much care as they will later. It’s also not unusual for family caregivers to be incredibly worried about the seniors in their care.

Companion Care Alleviates Stress

Companion care services offer seniors social interaction and another avenue of emotional support. This alleviates stress for both seniors and family caregivers, especially when seniors have consistent access to companion caregivers. Seniors have someone new to talk to and engage in activities with while family caregivers know that seniors have companionship so they can do other things. This keeps family caregivers from splitting their attention and time, even allowing them the opportunity to focus on some of their own needs.

Seniors Get Social Engagement

Elder care services offer specific types of help to aging adults. For instance, they might tackle light housekeeping tasks, help seniors eat meals, or assist with personal care tasks like showering and grooming. Many seniors may not need that much help just yet or their needs are light enough that family caregivers handle those with no trouble. But social engagement is another story. Companion care at home offers a friendly companion for seniors to talk to and to spend time with doing a variety of different activities.

Family Caregivers Feel Less Guilty

So many family caregivers find themselves battling uncomfortable feelings, like guilt. Whether they’re experiencing guilt because they need time to themselves or because they feel like they need to do more, these feelings are usually not accurate. Having solutions like companion care at home available allows family caregivers to free up time and energy that they can spend in more productive ways. When they come back, they’re able to spend quality time with the seniors they love.

Companion care at home offers immense benefits for seniors as well as family caregivers. Ultimately, the goal is to make sure that aging adults can spend their time aging in place with as much support as possible. Companion care allows seniors to build their confidence and spend time engaging with other people in ways that are meaningful for them. As needs change, other types of care may also be helpful, but until that time companion caregivers offer supportive, friendly social engagement.

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