A guide to caring for your elderly loved ones

If you have senior parents living at home, then you may be unsure about how to take the best care of them. Many people often decide that no matter what, they wouldn’t put their elderly parents or other loved ones in a nursing home. This is a very admirable thing to do, especially if the seniors in your life express their deep desire to remain at home. So, with that said, we will now look at a few tips and guidelines that will ensure caring for your loved ones is done the best way.

The very first thing that you need to do is figure out exactly how much care needs to be provided. This can be done by finding out the medical condition of your elderly family members by taking them to a doctor or even to the hospital. The doctors will be able to let you know exactly what needs to be done for them medically on a daily and weekly basis. At home, you should take as many notes as you can on the various tasks that need to be done. For example, administering medications, bath assistance, food, recreation time, bed pan cleaning etc.

Once you know the exact needs of your elderly parents, you can then determine if you can fulfill all of those needs on your own, without causing undue distress. Remember, you also need to take your own health into consideration and you will likely need help with certain tasks. You may want to do everything on your own, however, this can cause you to burnout over time and you may even develop health problems.

If you are unable to take care of your elderly parents on your own, then you will need to get some help. There are many options available and one of the best ones is hiring home care assistance. This is exactly what it sounds like where you hire qualified persons to render care to your elderly parents at home. They can help with all of the tasks on your to-do list, assist with medical tasks and treatment, cleaning, cooking various meals etc.

Additionally, if you have other siblings, children and other family members, you should consider asking them for help. After all, the responsibility of taking care of elderly parents should fall on the entire family and not just one person. By sharing this responsibility, everyone will be able to pitch in and it will reduce the possibility of you getting frustrated and burnt out. Now, you should leave room for as much flexibility as possible. So for example, you can do one week of care then another sibling can do the other week etc. It is also important to share the financial stress of taking care of elderly parents. This can be done by using various benefits programs, trying to qualify for Medicaid etc.

To wrap things up, these are just a few ways that you can take care of your elderly parents or family members. It is certainly a huge responsibility, but if you think smart and implement the suggestions above, the burden will be a lot lighter and easier to bear.

Other articles from mtltimes.ca – totimes.ca – otttimes.ca