Caregiving Doesn’t End When Your Loved One’s Living Arrangements Change

February 22, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

When most of us think of aging, we think superficially about the transitions that take place. We think about grandparents we visited in nursing homes. We think about friends who talk about putting parents into assisted living.

But when we face the situation head-on, the concepts become more challenging to grasp.

What happens when your loved one no longer can navigate life on their own? Can they remain at home with care? Do they need assisted living? Do they need nursing care?

There are also transitions that aren’t as permanent, such as when your loved one goes into the hospital. They may require a few weeks at a rehab center. They may be released back home, albeit in a different condition when they went in.

Throughout these processes, your role as a caregiver doesn’t end. Instead, it changes. You suddenly have different requirements and different expectations. How do you manage this new situation? How do you cope with your feelings about the transition? How do you deal with the new way of life?

Stay active, especially in the first few days/weeks. It’s important for you and your loved one not to feel abandoned. Even if your loved one is active with therapies or activities, make sure you are part of the process. [Read more…]

How To Let Go

November 22, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

The holidays can bring mixed emotions to families that are facing increased caregiving for a loved one. No one likes to think this may be the last holiday together, yet in some cases you know it’s a strong possibility.

When illness is chronic and prolonged, or when frailty and old age impact the quality of life, there are measures we can take so that death is a dignified and comfortable process.

Making these decisions isn’t easy. In some cases, the patient doesn’t wish to discuss it. In others, family and friends may have difficulty accepting the inevitable. But starting a conversation around end-of-life issues can give a person an increased feeling of control. And in some cases make people with long-term illnesses feel better.

Watching someone you love slip away can be an overwhelming process. Of course you want to do everything possible to keep that person with you for as long as possible. It’s difficult knowing where to begin.

In most cases, the earlier you think about the process, consider your options and your feelings, the easier it is to discuss your options with those you love. It can help clarify decisions about the end of life process. It can ensure everyone has a chance to air their values, beliefs, hopes and fears. [Read more…]

Coping With Loss

October 4, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

Loss comes in a variety of ways.

It comes on the morning after your retirement party when you wake up and realize you have no place to be.

It comes after you sell your family home and downsize into a room-for-two condo.

It comes after a divorce, when you find yourself single for the first time in years.

It comes when you face a chronic illness and realize this will be a part of your life from now on.

It comes when a friend or a partner passes away.

All are significant losses. All are also nudges that tell you it’s time for significant change.

Loss and grief can occur at any age, with any life-changing event. While there are many things you can do to bring change into your life, you can never ignore it and hope it goes away. It won’t. [Read more…]

How To Interview Potential Caregivers

September 13, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

When it’s time to bring a caregiver into your lives, it can be a scary and overwhelming place to be. A lot of changes are happening in your family, and introducing a caregiver is often one of the biggest steps you’ll take.

How do you trust someone with the life of your loved one? How do you know how to find a good one?

With the amount of responsibility soon to be placed on this person, it can seem like an overpowering decision rests on your shoulders.

When looking for the right caregiver, understand that it’s a two step process. It’s equally important to find the right caregiver for your loved one and the right company that supports the caregiver. After all, a caregiver never stands alone. They are there providing a service that meets all the criteria the business maintains. Which is why it’s important to start the question process at the top, with the company that will be providing the caregivers who offer you support. [Read more…]

Is This Patient Ready To Go Home?

March 15, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

Many seniors and their families face it every day.

They find themselves in the hospital with an emergency. They spend hours, days, adjusting to surgeries, new routines, new realities. And then just as quickly, the time comes for the patient to be discharged.

Yet returning home won’t be easy. Studies show that many seniors simply aren’t ready nor capable of moving back home with new conditions in place. They are being discharged without adequate home support, and in many cases find themselves on a return trip to the hospital because of problems caused by not being able to properly care for themselves.

Doctors, support staff and hospital admin are picking up the slack, finding new ways to determine the right path for each patient at the time of discharge.

But it’s just as important for family caregivers to help make sure they are adequately covered as well. Many things need to be in place.

Care coordination – Following doctor’s instructions can be challenging. They are often given to you at rapid speed, at a time when you are at anything but your best. Patients are often overwhelmed and confused by the amount of information they receive, right at a time when it’s most critical to make follow-up appointments, have rehabilitation sessions and follow medicinal orders. This is when its most important to have an extra set of ears, eyes and hands to make sure everything runs smoothly and according to plans. [Read more…]

Why Your Caregiver Should Match Your Requirements

February 24, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

Have you ever met someone and just “clicked?”

That’s chemistry.

And while we’ve all faced that moment of recognition with friends and even romantic relationships throughout our lives, as we move into caregiving roles that chemistry becomes even more important.

Imagine someone coming in every day and helping you with the most personal routines – bathing, preparing your meals, helping you in and out of bed, transporting you to appointments – and not having chemistry in place. What if they rub you the wrong way? What if you simply didn’t get along?

Being with the right caregiver is important to the success and the health of the patient. The right caregiver can dramatically lift a person’s spirits and improve their quality of life. Even the simplest of joys can give a person a reason to want to live better.

But how do you find that caregiver? How do you ensure a good match? [Read more…]

What Assisted Living Homes Hide

June 9, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

Making a decision about what to do with mom or dad is difficult at best. And while public opinion has pushed the concept of choosing assisted living, it rarely is the best option you have. Assisted living homes fill a need; but in many cases they hide their true purpose. It’s only after you have your mom/dad moved in that you start realizing all that is missing.

Assisted living isn’t a full time solution

Many people move into assisted living homes thinking they will have a variety of services readily at hand. Assisted living homes, however, are not nursing homes. They don’t require the same skilled nursing staff that is required at a nursing facility. Many of the workers have very little training. And in many cases, if you want extra services, you’ll have to pay for each service you choose. While each assisted living home caters to different needs, you’ll often find what you think you were getting doesn’t match up to what you truly need.

Assisted living homes have specific guidelines

Most assisted living homes cater to a certain type of case. When you enter for a tour, they evaluate how good of a fit you are for the home, not how well they can provide for your needs. Because they tend to offer “rinse and repeat” services, offering generic services for all tenants, they don’t want the special cases that cause a problem. Because you are simply renting space month by month, many assisted living homes reserve the right to end the contract and require you to find space elsewhere once you no longer fit within their guidelines. This can be added stress for the family, especially when it happens quickly.

Most assisted living homes charge extra fees

Where most assisted living homes make their money isn’t in the monthly rent, its in the extras. While most offer a standard level of service, it’s the extras that add up quickly. For instance, they may offer to wash your bedding once per week, but who will help your loved one take the bedding off the bed and put it back on? If your loved one isn’t strong enough for the chore, it can be an added fee. Tiny fees like this are added in all the time. And at the end of the month, the shock of a huge bill can make you wonder what you got into.

Looks can be deceiving

Assisted living homes know they have to please the family, not the senior moving in. Which is why you’ll often find a wealth of amenities right as you enter the front door. New expensive carpeting, beautiful landscaping, flowers in the hallways, all can create an ambiance that is warm and inviting. What is more difficult is seeing beyond the looks and getting into the care. What type of care is provided? What skills do the staff have? What activities are planned for the residents once the family is gone? Too often a family finds out weeks or months later that their loved one isn’t receiving the kind of care they signed up for.

There isn’t a standard rating system for assisted living

If you’ve spent time looking at assisted living, you probably have discovered that rating systems are nowhere to be found. You can look online for reviews, but when it comes to a government funded rating system for quality care, you’ll rarely find any information at all. Inspections are often few and far between. You can ask internally to view records of fines and violations, but keep in mind they rarely will hand them out willingly.

While assisted living homes may serve a purpose for some families, a far better choice is in home care. In home care allows your loved one to remain at home with quality one-on-one care provided for his or her specific needs. If you would like to learn more, schedule your free consultation today.

Why Customized Caregiving May Be The Right Solution

May 12, 2015 by admin 1 Comment

When you need a service performed in your life, you have one of two choices. You can choose the mass route, where one service is perfected and performed over and over again. Or you can choose the customized approach, where the service is entirely constructed around what you need most.

We’re seeing the mass route pop up in all kinds of industries. Maybe you’ve noticed it in services like dentistry, or massage therapy. You can choose to go to a chain massage therapy center, for example, where employees are hired and taught to provide a certain quality of service. There is no deviation from what they do from client to client; they perform the same task over and over again.

Or you can choose the customized approach, where a massage therapist learns all about your needs, and customizes an approach to provide you with the best service possible. Their approach changes from client to client, depending on the approach best suited for the individual.

This same approach is also popping up in the in-home caregiving industry as well. As the population ages at an incredible pace, the need for caregiving services is increasingly right along with it. And in some cases, the tasks performed may become repetitive, giving the mass caregiving route an advantage. That is why assisted living facilities continue to open on a regular basis. In some cases a person can remain independent with simple, structured tasks. A quality meal three times per day may be a big bonus to a family worried about their loved one eating.

But what if your loved one is a picky eater and decides not to eat the meals cooked at the mass-caregiving facility (ie an assisted living facility)? [Read more…]

5 Things Families Need To Ask Before Hiring A Caregiver

March 10, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

Hiring a caregiver to care for a loved one can be one of the most difficult tasks you’ll face. Its hard knowing who to put your trust in; finding someone you can count on even in the most difficult of situations.

Caregivers come with all kinds of skill sets, many different personalities. What works well for one person may be a wrong choice for another. There are many factors to keep in mind as you move through the process.

Its important to keep in mind that your ultimate goal is to keep your loved one safe and secure. Different caregiving companies have different ways of choosing their caregivers, and have different monitoring methods. A big company isn’t necessarily better than a small company. In many cases it depends on your needs and desires.

When you find yourself in need of an extra set of hands, don’t rely on the biggest simply because they’re the biggest, or on a quick search through a guide book. Instead, spend the time evaluating your needs, and finding the right person that can come on and help your situation in the best way possible. Don’t rely on marketing materials and a canned presentation; dive in with your questions as well, and listen to make sure the answers meet your needs. Here are 5 top questions that should be on your list.

What is the hiring process for your caregivers?

Start with this question and dive deep to figure out where the company you are considering doing business with finds and hires caregivers from. How much work do they put into the process? How do they evaluate the caregivers? What type of background checks do they perform? Are they insured and bonded? You can quickly tell a company that cares about both their caregivers and their clients by the way they spend their time looking for the right people. If you have further questions, ask. A good company will be happy to provide you with the answers you need to move forward. This isn’t a quick hire; this is someone that may be a part of your life for a long time in the future. [Read more…]

Never Settle When Looking For In Home Care

December 2, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

Caregiving is one of those things you never plan for, and you rarely think about before you actually need it. Then once you do, you have no idea where to start. You go into crisis mode trying to find something as quick as possible.

If you ask anyone who has been in this situation, they usually can provide you with all kinds of tips on where to start and what to look for. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, and with caregiving, its definitely true.

Because you’ve never hired a caregiver before, and probably have no idea about what to look for, you may be approaching it in all the wrong ways. If you don’t know what services you will truly need, you don’t know the right questions to ask. Which means you’re at risk of hiring someone entirely inappropriate for the job.

And of course there can be even more complications if you are planning for all of this for a parent who is hundreds of miles away. Whether you are in town for a week or two to find solutions, or are doing the work via Internet and phone calls, how do you know which direction to go?

After working with many, many clients over the years, and being in the situation myself with my own parents, there are a few tips I can share that will help you as you start out on this new journey.

Involve The Patient

This one sounds like a no-brainer; the person receiving the care should be involved in the process. Yet its also an easy step to overlook. When you’re busy behind a desk or making calls and taking in advice, its easy to start making decisions as your comfort level increases. But in the end, its your loved one who will spend time with the caregiver. They need to be comfortable together, and have a connection that will allow them to work well together every day. Make sure you ask your loved one what is important to them; seek advice along the way, getting as much input as possible. [Read more…]