It takes a family working together to choose the most appropriate option for a loved one’s senior care—and to provide a loved one the best care possible.
Why?
For starters, seniors are at a vulnerable stage of life. They often face multiple health concerns and loss of physical and cognitive function. More than ever, seniors need the support and love of family members.
In this article, Comfort Keepers® offers suggestions of important areas of family and senior consideration. Working together, the family can create a great foundation for senior support.
Seniors often have difficulty expressing their needs, desires and preferences, so they need someone to advocate for them. And who is more qualified for that than the people who know them better than anyone else in the world?
Even if your family chooses to involve outside help in providing your loved one’s elder care—an in-home care agency like Comfort Keepers, an assisted living community, or a nursing home—you need to be involved. You can communicate to the professional caregivers your loved one’s likes and dislikes, habits, routines, concerns and all the other things that make them the individual they are. Without your help and involvement, their senior care may fall short of what they deserve.
Today, 80 percent of older Americans prefer to stay at home as they age. This means families are more directly involved than ever in their loved ones’ care. So, it is more important than ever for families to be involved in the planning stage together, as no single individual can adequately handle the responsibilities of caregiving alone. Certainly not on top of responsibilities at work and with their own families and community involvement.
Granted, in most families, there is usually one sibling who, by desire or default based on proximity to the aging parent, becomes the chief caregiver. Deciding who that person will be is a good topic for the first conversation with aging parents. Parents, of course, need to be involved in every step of the decision process so they can maintain as much control of their lives as possible.
But no matter who is the chief caregiver, all siblings need to share in the responsibility in some way. This could involve home maintenance, managing bill paying and finances, or taking care of insurance and medical claim issues.
Also, do not forget the importance of frequent visitation. As you brighten your parents’ day, you can monitor their health and mental status and share concerns you have with their professional caregiver. You may find that their elder care plan needs to be modified to address changing circumstances.
In our next article, we’ll talk about important considerations in deciding about senior home care.