Looking after your elderly parents is not an easy task, though it can be gratifying. It can be a full-time job, challenging, and difficult to manage, especially if you are working and have your family to take care of. Even though looking after your parents should be an easy and enjoyable task especially when you think of your parents and you've been together.
But you will realize that balancing your life and taking care of your elderly parents can be tricky. Taking care of a parent can be time-consuming, especially where they suffer particular health conditions. You want to ensure that they are as comfortable as humanly possible during this period. It is, therefore, crucial to engage the services of home-based caregivers, who will ensure your elderly parents receive the best care.
At Mom’s Home Care, our professional caregivers will take excellent care of your parents and at the same time work hand in hand with their medical personnel in the management of any health condition they may have. Types of health conditions that our caregivers will assist with include but are not limited to:
Home-Based Professional Rehabilitation Care After An Injury
Sometimes you will find that your parents require therapy after treatment for particular imjuries. Even though their medical personnel will be of great help, they will still need someone at home as they recover. When you hire a home-based caregiver, they will assess your parents' house and offer helpful suggestions to assist in your parents' recovery journey.
The presence of home-based caregivers also ensures that your parents are at home and not admitted to the hospital if it's not necessary. In addition, family and friends can visit your parents at home and offer their support which goes a long way in ensuring a successful recovery. Your caregivers will assist in the rehabilitation care after injury by helping with the management of medication, helping them with dressing, and at the same time helping with their daily needs.
Professional Home-Based Rehabilitation After Illness or Surgery
Your loved one will have to undergo rehabilitative services after recovering from injuries like:
- Spinal cord
- Knee and hip replacements
- Brain
- Neurological disorders
Most patients value their independence and feel uncomfortable when they think their health condition inconveniences their family members. A home-based caregiver will give them much-needed peace of mind.
Home-Based Care For Alzheimer’s Disease
With home-based care for Alzheimer’s disease or dementia services, your parents can stay at their home where everything is safe and familiar. You should know that Alzheimer’s disease affects all aspects of your loved ones' lives. For instance, your parents may have lived in their home for decades, but with Alzheimer’s disease, they forget where everything is. They may also tend to forget if they have taken their medication or not and if they switched off an appliance.
There is nothing as heartbreaking as watching your parents slowly lose their memory, and you will be afraid to leave them alone. When it reaches this point, hiring professional home-based caregivers may be the best decision to make for your loved ones. Services that your caregiver could offer, include light housekeeping, ensuring your loved ones keep their appointments, and personal care like bathing and grooming.
Specialized Home Based Care For People With Diabetes
When your loved one is diagnosed with diabetes, it can be a traumatizing period as they come to terms with the disease. Diabetes currently has no cure, but a healthy lifestyle is crucial in managing insulin and blood sugar levels. Your parents will have to follow a strict diet and exercise regime while taking their prescribed medication. Home-based care offers all the parties involved a solution that helps in lessening the impacts of the disease. Your home-based caregivers will work hand in hand with your loved ones' doctors and offer relevant support. For instance, they will help prepare meals and ensure your parents adhere to the meal plan set by their doctors or their nutritionist.
A home-based caregiver will manage the patient’s medications, ensure they exercise as recommended, and at the same time provide education and support to their patients and their families as well. Home-based care for patients with diabetes is primarily ideal for those patients who suffer from diabetes wounds, frequent hospital visits, and admissions or have an underlying medical condition that makes it difficult to manage diabetes disease.
Specialized Home-Based Cancer Care
Though cancer treatments have advanced tremendously, patients still need specialized care, especially radiation, chemotherapy, or surgery. A home-based caregiver will care for loved ones ensuring they are comfortable and safe while at home. In addition, a caregiver will assist in providing that your elderly parents have support when they are in pain, nausea, infection, vomiting, or face any other complications. The main objective of a cancer caregiver is to ensure the patient is comfortable during difficult times.
Home-Based Care for Stroke Patients
Since stroke is currently a leading cause of most adult disabilities in the U.S, it is tough to determine how long its effect will last on a loved one. The uncertainty of when or even if your elderly parents will fully recover is real. This uncertainty will give you and your family sleepless nights, but with a home-based caregiver, you can rest easy and concentrate on supporting your parents to recover fully. Hire qualified caregivers who know when your loved one requires support, they will work hard to ensure your parents enjoy a quality life and retain a sense of their independence even when they are recovering from the effects of a stroke.
Home-Based Care for Heart Disease Patients
After suffering heart failure, your parents will require specialized support to ensure they don't end up in the hospital again. Unfortunately, statistics show that most patients go back to the hospital after a heart failure due to medical oversight, poor nutrition, immobility, among others. A specialized caregiver will ensure that your parents keep to the meal plan set by their nutritionist, exercise, and take their medications as prescribed. A caregiver will also monitor your parent’s vital signs, ensure they keep their daily routine, assist with breathing exercises, among others.
When you engage the services of a home-based care provider, you will be assisting your loved ones in regaining their lost strength, forging better relationships with them as you will spend quality time with them. When a caregiver ensures that your loved ones keep their doctor's appointment and implement a healthy lifestyle, they help slow the disease and help ensure it doesn't reach critical levels.
Specialized Home-Based Care for Patients Suffering from Depression
Sometimes your aging parents may want to retain their independence and, in the process, end up suffering from the isolation of living alone. You will need to be keen to note any signs of depression that may result in hospital stays and mobility issues. In addition, when your parent or loved one loses a spouse, child, or friend, combined with a decreased level of social activities, they may end up suffering from depression. Some of the signs that will indicate that your loved one is suffering from depression are weight loss, extreme tiredness, and irritability. You will have to be very keen as some of these signs can be mistaken as age-related.
Caregivers assist people suffering from depression by ensuring they participate in community activities. Sometimes, your parents will need the services of a caregiver even though they can take care of themselves. A caregiver offers companionship, someone your parents can talk to, eat together, and even take a walk together. When dealing with a person suffering from depression, a caregiver’s primary role is to ensure they have a quality life, ultimately leading to a happy parent.
Respite and End of Life Care Support
When it comes to the final stages of a terminal illness, some priorities change. During this stage, the care changes from curative measures to palliative, and the main focus will be on pain relief and emotional stress management. The main objective is to ensure your loved ones' final moments are as good and comfortable as they can be.
A professional caregiver will anticipate any demands from the patient and the family, which will go a long way in easing them from grief and care towards acceptance and finally healing. You will realize that a patient’s emotions during their final stages tend to change. However, some feelings don't change during these times. Most patients will worry about their loved ones, the loss of control they suffer, and how it affects their families. For these reasons, most parents would want to spare their children the agony and withhold crucial information. Some may even tend to alienate their loved ones.
Apart from suffering the fear of being a burden to their loved ones, most parents face the fear of being abandoned by their children. This is where a home caregiver comes in handy, and they know how to balance and ensure all the parties involved are comfortable with each other. Home caregivers will not only take emotional care of the patient but offer the following services as well:
- Offer companionship. They will talk with your elderly parents or loved ones, watch movies together, read to them, and sometimes just hold their hands.
- They will answer any of the patients' questions. You will realize that if your loved ones can comprehend what is going on in their lives, they will appreciate being included in discussions that concern them.
- Offer a listening ear. Caregivers will listen as patients express their fears of the unknown or death. It is hard to listen to someone talk about their impending death, and it helps them come to terms with the inevitable. A Home-based caregiver will listen without interrupting and not argue with the patient.
When it comes to end-of-life home-based care, there are several services which you and your loved one will benefit from. These services include but are not limited to:
- Retain dignity. Although your loved ones have lost their memory or their cognitive ability, one thing remains steady, and that is their capability to feel afraid, loved, frightened, secure, sad, or even lonely. A home-based caregiver will ensure that your parents retain their dignity even when they know it; this will give you much-needed peace of mind. During these last stages of the illness of your loved one, retaining their dignity will ease your discomfort and help you make long-lasting memories.
- Practical assistance. Sometimes, the end-of-life stage in an illness will lead to a situation where your parents cannot sit, walk, talk, or even understand what is happening to them. At some point, they may lose their ability to bathe, dress, feed, and even go to the washroom and may require assistance to complete these tasks. When it comes to this stage, your caregiver will work with your loved ones, nurses, or hospice team to ensure they receive the best care.
- Respite care. If you take care of your loved one full-time, you will need a break. A break is vital when taking care of a loved one as it gives you time to take care of yourself. Sometimes, it may involve having a caregiver step in for you for a couple of hours, and you can go out and take a breather by having some coffee with your friends.
- Grief support. A professional caregiver will help you prepare for the impending loss of your loved one. You may not notice it, but anticipating the death of your parents or loved ones will have a toll on you. Your emotions will be all over the place, from feeling relief and being sad may lead to numbness.
Contact A Home Caregiver Near Me
When you decide to hire a home caregiver for to help when suffering a health condition in Los Angeles, ensure you hire one that has excellent reviews. Your parents can stay in the comfort of their home as they recover, which will give them peace of mind. With home-based care, your loved one enjoys a quality life with fewer hospital visits. Engaging the services of a professional caregiver will give you and the other family members a chance to spend quality time with your aging parents.
Our professional caregivers at Mom’s Home Care will ensure your parents are as comfortable as possible as they recover or when they are in their last stages of sickness. Sometimes you may want to have someone to accompany your parents as they run errands like grocery shopping. Our caregivers will ensure your parents feel safe and secure about their daily routine. Feel free to contact us at 323-244-4789 and set up your first consultation.
