How to Help Your Elderly Parents Retain Their Independence

There are approximately 52 million people over the age of 65 living in the United States. Getting older is something most people look forward to. If you are the child of aging parents, one of your main concerns should be keeping them healthy and happy. The older your parents get, the harder it will be for them to do normal things without assistance. 

Physically demanding tasks like cleaning and yard work will need to either be handled by professionals or the children of an elderly person. Ideally, you want to alleviate the work your parents have to do without infantilizing them. Allowing the elderly to retain a sense of independence is important. Read below for some tips on how to help your aging parents retain their independence. 

Assess Whether They Need In-Home Care

Visiting your aging parents on a regular basis is a great way to assess how well they are doing. If it seems like your parents are having a hard time cooking, cleaning or performing other important tasks, it may be time to suggest in-home care. There are a number of businesses that specialize in providing senior citizens with the help they need. 

Instead of forcing this in-home help on your elderly loved ones, you need to find out how they feel about this subject. Having a heart-to-heart conversation with your parents is essential when trying to get a feel for what they want. Calmly explaining why you think they need in-home care is the first thing you need to do. Once you are done, take time to hear their feedback and work on a compromise. 

Check Out Community Resources Designed For Seniors

Going out of the house can become difficult for an aging person. The longer an elderly individual has to sit in a home alone, the higher the risk becomes of them getting depressed. Allowing your aging parents to get out and socialize with people their own age is a wise move. In most areas, there are senior citizen centers that cater solely to the elderly. 

These centers are a great way for your parents to mingle and take their mind off of stressful things in their life. Most senior citizen centers provide food, drinks, and games to their clientele. Finding a senior center that offers transportation for your parents can make this process easier on you. 

Modify Their Home For Comfort and Safety

If your aging parents insist on staying in their home, it is your job to make modifications to ensure they are safe. Things like handrails and ramps can help your parents get around easier. You also need to think about getting your parents an easy-to-use security system for their home. Getting a system with remote viewing can help you look in on your parents from your smartphone. 

Looking For Quality In-Home Care?

Does your elderly loved one need some extra help? If so, contact the professionals at Like Family Home Care to find out more about the in-home care services we offer.

Ways to Help a Spouse Who is Developing Dementia

When a spouse begins to develop the symptoms of dementia, it can be difficult to juggle everything that changes around your home. Suddenly things aren't as easy to manage as they were in the past. Your loved one's memories and behaviors are changing, and it can be more difficult to interact with them. There are services that can help your family as you deal with this issue, however, and there are ways that you can assist your partner. 

You can help your partner in the following ways: 

Learn New Communication Skills

If your spouse has been diagnosed with dementia, you may notice that they don't communicate with you the same way that they used to. They may forget things, repeat themselves, or seem more irritable than they did previously. It's important that you understand that these are symptoms, not an effort to be mean to you or to annoy you. It's also important that you work with your partner's team of professionals to discuss communication skills that may help them keep their symptoms under control. For example, you may need to avoid talking about specific topics in the evening, when they are more forgetful. You may need new methods of remembering household tasks, having conversations, and celebrating special occasions. You can learn all of these skills, with assistance.

Arrange for Support for Yourself

Caring for a loved one with dementia isn't easy. Caregiver burnout is a very real issue, and many individuals that care for their partners full time find themselves overwhelmed. If you'll be taking care of your loved one, it's important that you arrange for support for yourself, as well. Consider joining a support group, signing up for therapy, and making appointments to get out of the house regularly with friends or family members. This type of social support is vitally important as you act as a caregiver to your partner. 

Consider Outsourcing Some Tasks

As you care for your loved one, you may realize that there are simply too many tasks for you to handle. If you find yourself in this situation, it may be time to consider hiring someone to assist you as you run the household. Hiring a home healthcare provider to help with tasks specific to your partner's care may free you up to enjoy more time relaxing with them. Alternatively, you could hire someone to help with daily living tasks such as light housekeeping. Either way, the extra assistance can go a long way towards helping things feel more manageable. 

If your partner is suffering from dementia, it may be time to reach out for assistance. Contact the skilled professionals at Like Family Home Care. We'll provide you with a list of services we offer and discuss the options that may work best for your individual situation.

Care-ful Solutions for Home Living

All across the country, every day, families are first astounded, and then enraged, by the prices they have to pay for convalescent care in some retirement communities.

Yes, the family has many options – but many of them will completely swallow up even a significant estate that someone has built carefully over the course of their life. With that in mind, many families are looking for qualified home care as an excellent alternative. Staying in a home or staying out of price-gouging corporate community contracts is a great thing, if your elderly family member is well cared for. However, that can be a big if!

At Like Family Home Care, that's what we do (the name says it all, right?). We excel in treating your elderly family members like they’re part of ours – and we’re proud of not just the quality of care, but the relationships that we build with seniors as they age.

Personal Care

Personal care is such an important component of long-term care that it makes sense to focus on this topic first. Many elderly people have mobility or cognitive problems as they age. They may be able to do some things to take care of themselves, but not others.

At Like Family Home Care, we make toileting, showering and other personal daily routines easy with staff who understand that this is a job deeply involving personal relationships. It's incredibly important to have partners and employees who will come into a home and do those services well, understanding the sensitivity and care that has to go along with them.

Meal Preparation

Everyone needs to eat, and that's another big component of what you pay for in a comprehensive assisted living contract.

Family Home Care helps to personalize and customize your family member’s options, so that he or she can get fed without overpaying for a corporate cafeteria contract. Instead of being served like you would in a hospital, the individuals who are under our care can choose their menus and get meal preparation options that suit them!

Transportation

Here's another very important part of the logistics of caring for a family member that has some families frazzled and frustrated – how do you get him or her from point A to point B?

Once again, comprehensive contracts have transportation built-in. But we approach it from a completely independent service model, to make sure that everything works in the best way for our clients. Rather than bringing a cookie-cutter approach, we take time to understand your family member’s transportation needs and how to utilize available resources like public transit systems and other stakeholders to deliver the best care for the best price.

Call us and ask about how to get creative in setting up your aging family members for long-term comfort and confidence.

4 Tips for Preventing Caregiver Burnout

As family members grow older, relatives are often faced with the choice of sending their loved ones to a managed care facility or try to care for them at home. There are many benefits to allowing older adults to receive care at home. The environment is more natural to the senior, and there's less disruption to their everyday life. At Like Family Home Care, we specialize in supporting older adults who remain at home by providing a wide variety of services. Our services can help family caregivers who are often at risk of experiencing burnout. Here are four tips you can use to help prevent caregiver burnout.

Make Time for Relationships

One of the most common causes of caregiver burnout is isolation. Many caregivers devote all of their time to helping their older relatives. However, without taking the time for social interactions, it can adversely affect the mental health of the caregiver. It’s vital to take the time to enjoy social interactions with friends. Go see a movie or grab a few close friends for a coffee or lunch. By spending time with friends that positively affect your mood, it’s possible to head off the social isolation that can lead to caregiver burnout.

Maintain Your Own Health

When worrying about the health of older relatives, it’s not uncommon for caregivers to neglect their own health. Caregivers let their own medical appointments slip because they’re busy overseeing someone else’s medical treatments. However, allowing your health to slip can make things harder for everyone else in the future. Your family member needs you to stay as healthy as possible. This requires you to go to regular checkups, get cancer screenings, as well as mental health updates. If you don’t think you have enough time for these personal health concerns, get help from services such as Like Home Family Care. Our team of experts can ensure your older relatives receive proper are while you take care of your own health.

Give Yourself a Break

Carrying for an older relative can be a full-time job. And like any full-time position, it's essential to take breaks. If you have friends and family members who are nearby, you can ask them to fill in for you for a few hours. You can use the break to take a walk, watch a movie, or go out to dinner. If you don't have that option, you can use services such as Like Family Home Care to handle some of the daily responsibilities so caregivers can have a little more time for their own needs. Period breaks are essential for protecting the mental health of at-home family caregivers.

Know the Signs of Caregiver Burnout

One of the keys to preventing caregiver burnout is learning how to identify the symptoms. Burnout is something that develops over time. By learning to recognize early symptoms before they grow into more significant problems, caregivers can make sure they get the help and the breaks they need. The AARP identified several signs of caregiver burnout. These include anger or frustration toward the person you're caring for; increased anxiety, depression, an exhaustion that makes it tough to complete your daily tasks, increased health problems, irritability and moodiness, sleeplessness, and social withdrawal from friends and activities that the caregiver used to enjoy. If you start seeing these symptoms in caregivers, relatives can offer to help with some responsibilities. You can also have a service such as Like Family Home Care take over on some days, so the caregiver has more time to relax.

If you’re looking for at-home care for older relatives in Arizona, Like Family Home Care can help. Send us a message online to discuss the services you need for older relatives receiving at-home care.

Home Care Vs. Assisted Living: Which is the Right Option For You?

There are over 47 million senior citizens currently living in the United States. Each of these senior citizens has unique needs when it comes to the care they need and the environment they thrive in. As a person ages, they will need to start getting help with a few tasks.

If you are the child of an aging parent or have an aging loved one you care about, finding the right care options for them is imperative. Home care and assisted living are just two of the most popular options seniors use when in need of some extra help. These two options are very different, which is why you need to find out about them both. Here is some important information you need regarding home care and assisted living.

Home Care is Great For Seniors Who Want to Age in Place

For most people, their home is a refuge from the world and their personal oasis. As a person gets older, they will need to think long and hard about where they want to spend their golden years. If a person wants to stay in the home they have lived and raised a family in, hiring a home care agency is probably the best course of action.

In most cases, the home care option is reserved for seniors with mild medical issues who can still function on their own. The best part about hiring a home care company is their ability to help seniors with activities of daily living. This includes things like shopping, preparing meals and cleaning.

Not only will a home care agency help with these important tasks, they can also provide companionship to a senior. With all of the different home care providers on the market, choosing the best one is no easy task. Before you make a decision regarding which agency to use, be sure to check their credentials and reputation. The time and energy invested in this research will pay off when you are able to hire the best possible home care agency for your senior loved on.

Assisted Living Facilities Provide Extra Help to Seniors

When trying to decide whether or not the senior in your life needs home care or to move into an assisted living facility, consider their health. Often times, seniors who have serious health conditions that prohibit them from living alone safely will move into assisted living communities. Generally, these facilities will provide a home-like atmosphere to tenants.

They also have fun activities, a staff of nurses and delicious food offerings. If your senior loved one requires around the clock care, there is really no substitute for the convenience of an assisted living facility. While these facilities may be a bit costly, they are worth it considering the quality care a senior will receive.

Working With Experienced Home Care Professionals

Are you a senior citizen in need of quality home care services? If so, contact the team at Like Family Home Care for more information on the services they provide.