You’re balancing your career, your family, and your dad’s care needs. He wants to age at home, but you’re finding it hard to ensure he meets this goal. The older he gets, the more help he needs, and it’s becoming too much for you to handle on your own.
Almost two out of five unpaid caregivers report feeling high emotional stress when caring for an older adult. As most unpaid caregivers are adult children caring for a parent, you get it. You experience a lot of stress caring for your dad. You’re not sure what to do.
What’s important is that you don’t ignore your feelings. Self-care is important. If you keep giving when you have little energy left to give, it will lead to caregiver burnout. This is where home care assistance is vital to your physical and emotional health.
Signs of Caregiver Burnout
What are the signs of caregiver burnout? They include:
- Constant feelings of tiredness or exhaustion
- Feeling trapped by the care you provide
- Experiencing regular anxiety and unhappiness
- Eating less or more than is normal or usual for you
- Resenting your role and responsibilities
If you experience things like this, you may find it hard to take care of your dad the way you should. You both deserve more, and home care assistance helps.
What Does Home Care Assistance Help With?
When you arrange home care services, the caregivers help with almost everything you’re doing for your dad. Think about the things you do each day. You help him remember to take his medications when he gets up. Caregivers offer medication reminders.
You cook your dad’s breakfast and clean up after. Home care assistance can do that. They can also clean the house, do the laundry, schedule his appointments, and get him to his doctor’s office on time.
Your dad’s caregivers can run errands, take him grocery shopping, accompany him for a walk in the park, and help him brush and floss his teeth after meals. With a caregiver helping out, you’re free to go to work and focus on your job without worrying about your dad being alone all day.
Getting Started
How do you arrange home care services? Make a list of the tasks your dad needs help doing. Gather the family for this conversation. Your brothers and sisters may have noticed things that you’ve overlooked. Build a care list from this discussion.
Call a home care agency and ask about the pricing for the care services on the list you created. Find out how often caregiver services are recommended given your dad’s situation. Ask how you schedule caregiver visits based on those recommendations.
Hire caregivers to help your dad with his daily personal care and companion care tasks. This frees up your time to do fun activities together. Call to learn more.
Sources:
https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2021/05/caregiving-in-the-united-states-50-plus.doi.10.26419-2Fppi.00103.022.pdf
