It’s almost everyone’s goal in life to ensure their parents’ age comfortably and in place. But to be honest, figuring out how to provide our senior parents with efficient elderly care can be quite challenging. The good thing is that there are several options out there to consider when it comes to taking care of your aging parents. You may decide to provide them care in their own home, move them in to live with you, or even have them stay in a respectable elderly care facility. After making this basic but life-changing decision, remember you have taken full responsibility for their health care, medical and financial powers, and insurance, as well as day-to-day obligations such as paying bills and managing their assets.
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To make it a bit easy for you, here is a guide to providing your senior parents with elderly care.
1. Understand The Level Of Care Needed
Frankly, when it comes to providing your senior parents with elderly care, you may fall into the state of ‘can’t see the forest for the trees. Then you end up always feeling overwhelmed with the long list of caregiving to-do items without seeing the overall picture. To avoid all that, you really need to understand how much elderly care your senior parent needs. For instance, start by creating a list of daily, weekly, and monthly care requirements. That way, you’re in a position to understand not only how much supervision is needed but also at what times of the day regardless of whether it’s during the day, at night, or weekends.
2. Get Relevant Help With Professional Caregiving
While finding reliable help with caregiving experience might seem daunting, it’s still a worthwhile investment. Better yet, professional help is perhaps the best way to provide care for your aging parents. As seen at arcare.com.au, you have several options to choose from depending on the specific needs of your aging parent. You can choose between residential and in-home care, for instance. Whatever you go for, make sure to choose a highly reputed and affordable aged-care residence such as senior care Brooklyn for your parents. This is somewhere they will be taken good care of with the surety of the utmost safety.
If you take on too much by yourself, you may eventually burn out and get frustrated. You could even develop depression or a serious health condition. Instead, you should just be proactive while finding ways to get the specific help you need. That way, you reduce your workload, ward off stress, and get enough rest.
3. Ensure You Address Safety Concerns
When taking care of your aging parents, you will definitely need to take care of these three safety requirements. You need to ensure that they are safe from falling, burning themselves, and poisoning. So, part of the decision you have to make with your parents is on how you will adopt a safe home free of all those risks. In fact, the CDC emphasizes that individuals 65 years or older are at a high risk of falls almost always. Additionally, most fatal and non-fatal injuries for seniors are caused by falls. So, review with your parents all the safety measures required for a safe living environment. For instance, ensure all the appliances are working properly. Other safety measures include but not limited to:
- Installing carbon monoxide detectors
- Keeping away obstacles and electrical cords
- Ensuring the proper handling of cleaning products
- Having all their medications labeled
- Installing handrails and grab bars where necessary
- Switching or covering slippery floors with non-skid material
4. Support Seniors To Stay Active
Helping your parents to stay physically fit and mobile is an amazing way to help them age in place. In fact, those regular exercises and mobility help aging individuals maintain the necessary bone, muscle, and joint strength. Also, regular exercise reduces risks such as falls and improves recovery in case of an injury or illness.
There are several options to consider when looking to help your parents enjoy being active. For instance, you can subscribe to online exercise classes, YouTube dance videos, or even connect them with their grandchildren via video chats. Other benefits of physical activities for the elderly include but not limited to:
- Reduces problems related to memory
- Treats depression
- Prevents dementia, and many others
5. Find The Financial Support You Need
Providing the needed care for your parents can be overwhelming financially. A good way of reducing this financial burden is by seeking out financial support before the situation gets out of control. With appropriate financial support, you can provide your parents with the best elderly care possible and without a hassle. Here are a few ways you can find the financial support you need:
- Find government or private benefits programs that help to cover the costs of taking care of the elderly.
- If your parents receive a pension fund, request them to use some of the funds to pay yourself as the family caregiver.
- Look for cheaper options for medication prescriptions.
Taking care of our aging parents may feel daunting to anyone. It often requires a lot of time, patience, and effort. However, you do need to beat yourself up over it. With the guide above, providing care for your elderly parents should be a tad bit easier.
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