When you have an elderly parent at home, it is often in the best interests of both of you to keep them in their own home for the longest time possible. However, unless you have a clear plan of action in place that you can follow, you may find that this is not as easy as you had initially imagined. So, here are a few pieces of advice that can help you to keep your elderly parents at home for a longer period of time.
Understand the Amount of Care Required
Every individual has a different set of medical needs, which means that what works for one person is not going to be the same for another. The last thing that you want to do is to underestimate the complex needs of your parent as this could result in you becoming overwhelmed by the number of tasks that you are required to complete on a daily basis. One way of clearly mapping all of this out is to make a list of their needs and the likely jobs that you will need to complete that are directly related to each of them.
Stay Realistic About What You Can Do
While you may want to think wishfully and imagine yourself as superhuman, there are only a certain number of hours in the day and you only have a single pair of hands. Try to provide an honest assessment of what you can do on a daily basis. This can be a challenge when you are trying to do this all by yourself. It will help to get the advice of a third-party who is close to the situation, such as a sibling. This way, you are much less likely to bite off more than you can chew. It is also worthwhile researching specific issues such as traveling with dementia patient to get an idea of how this might work.
Get Support with the Caregiving
If you are unable to take care of all of the caregiving tasks yourself, it is important elderly that you get help with it wherever this is possible. Take your time in choosing someone who is going to do the job well. If you can get a personalized recommendation, this will ease your mind significantly in knowing that you are hiring the right person for the job. Support may also come from other family members, so it is certainly worth planning out the logistical challenges sooner rather than later.
Reduce the Financial Pressure
Another area of pressure that can end up impacting your task is the financial burden. Therefore, if you can find a way of reducing this, it is bound to be worthwhile. For example, you could seek out a government or benefit program that may be able to provide assistance. Perhaps you could even be paid for becoming the family caregiver.
Keeping your parents at home for longer can help to provide them with a better quality of life, and these are some of the ways in which you can make this goal a reality.
