How You Could Benefit from An In-Home Caregiver
Getting old is difficult. A controversial truism yes, but one that everyone must learn to live with at some point in their life. As you age, certain tasks that you once took for granted become harder, and harder to accomplish. Routine chores like mopping the floor, driving to the grocery store, and walking the dog become perilous as one misstep or stumble could be fatal.
Moreover, the danger factor is enhanced if you or a loved one is recovering from a procedure or suffers from a severe medical condition, like dementia.
Sometimes, it is equally as hard for a loved one to admit that they are overmatched by the needs of their father, mother, grandparent, or sibling. You also have to balance your work, family, and life with caring for your family member. You wish you could be there for them all the time but you other obligations; obligations you cannot skirt because you have bills to pay and mouths to feed.
Luckily, if you need help caring for your loved one, Mom’s Home Care is here to provide assistance. Mom’s Home Care staff understand the delicate role that they fulfill. Our staff members understand that, to many of your loved ones, we will be viewed with suspicion or even dislike because we are a reminder that your loved ones aren’t superheroes – they can’t be everywhere at once.
We understand that delicate balance, and we know our role, to lessen the burden on your loved one and family. If you need a little extra help, please do not hesitate to contact Mom’s Home Care for assistance at 323-244-4789.
Why Would You Need an In-Home Caregiver?
Your first thought might be “why do I need an in-home caregiver?” Admitting that we need help is one of the hardest tasks we can undertake as humans. You probably spent your whole life in the caregiving role, raising your children, caring for your spouse, and taking care of your parents when they grew older. However, it is precisely because you were such an inspiration that it is time for you to accept the assistance of your loved ones and an in-home caregiver.
When you are suffering from dementia, are recovering from a procedure, or simply need assistance with daily tasks due to healthy aging, that is when you need to begin thinking about your care needs. The goal of asking for help isn’t to admit weakness but to avoid further burdening you and your family with additional, preventable injuries.
Furthermore, if you are recovering from a procedure, it is normal for your spouse or a loved one to stay with you and care for you. In fact, the hospital likely wouldn’t discharge you until a friend or family member could sign you out. Mom’s Home Care provides that additional assistance when you need it; to alleviate the burden on your family while ensuring that you remain safe and focused on recovering.
Why do you need an in-home caregiver?
- To help you with daily tasks while you recover from a procedure or to ensure that you don’t exacerbate an ongoing medical condition;
- To help you run errands;
- To take you to appointments;
- To help you administer medication;
- To reduce the risk of falls; and
- To ensure that you remain safe.
Personal Care Services
Many people don’t realize how dependent they are on a functioning body and mind to even accomplish basic tasks. In-home caregivers help you perform these tasks so that you can stay in your own home, independent. Depending on the severity of your dementia, you may need assistance in a broad range of personal care services. This section will go over the various ways in which an in-home caregiver can aid you.
Mobility Assistance
Mobility is one of the biggest benefits of an in-home caregiver. The inability to freely move about your home, neighborhood, and the city is one of the most stifling restrictions you can experience. You go from a free-ranging adult who probably commuted to work, drove your kids to school, and caravanned with extended family on vacations to someone who needs help getting in and out of bed, in and out of chairs, and down the block.
However, mobility assistance is on the biggest benefits of in-home care. If you don’t have a loved one who can stay at home with you all day to help, then you risk being stuck inside or even in the same room all day, every day until your loved one can return after work and their other obligations. An in-home caregiver can help you get around, ensure that the world remains accessible to you and you to it.
Positioning and Transferring
You may also need help repositioning and transferring yourself. Like mobility, positioning and transferring refer to moving around your home. Again, depending on the severity of your condition, re-positioning is a critical part of any recovery and quality-of-life. Re-positioning prevents the development of bedsores which can become infected and turn fatal if not addressed quickly. Re-positioning ensures that you don’t develop these sores.
Similarly, transferring refers to moving you about your home. Things as simple as chairs, rugs, table legs, and your dog’s chew toys can become dangerous obstacles. All it takes is one bad fall for your health to deteriorate seriously. In-home caregivers can ensure that you remain active throughout your home.
Nutrition
Nutrition is a critical factor in living a healthy life as you age. Nutrition impacts your well-being and vitality is a broad range of ways. An in-home caregiver can help you achieve a balanced diet or help you with a specialized diet (depending on your needs). If you need a specialized diet, Mom’s Home Care staff can help you prepare it; whether it is a prescribed diet to control diabetes or heart disease or calcium-rich foods to stave off osteoporosis.
Moreover, nutrition is more than a piece of fruit, some veggies, lean proteins, and a dinner roll. It is also about the companionship. Unless you have a loved one(s) who can stay with you throughout the day, you likely spend many of your days in isolation. In-home caregivers return meal times to the social period they once were, working with you in the kitchen, preparing vegetables, and chatting about life or nonsense – easy conversation that people can take for granted.
Grooming and Hygiene
Grooming and hygiene are another task that you probably took for granted and is now significantly more difficult. It is a common joke but having a “reason to put on pants” matters a lot to your physical, emotional, and mental well-being; especially if you are battling dementia. Regardless if you’re young, middle-aged, or senior, you want to feel and look your best. In-home caregivers can help you look and feel good; to present yourself to the world in a way that you can be proud.
Also, just because you might be battling with dementia, does not mean that you should give up on grooming and hygiene. In-home caregivers can help with shampooing, soaping, and cleaning; to ensure that your personal hygiene does not suffer because you feel unsafe in the shower. Moreover, the help doesn’t stop there; caregivers can help you shave (with an electric razor), style your hair, and get you ready for the day. You can still look and feel good.
Toileting and Incontinence Care
Finally, the most personal and difficult task to admit that we all need help from time to time – incontinence and toileting. You may need help with going to the bathroom. The bathroom is one of the most dangerous rooms in the home, and more injuries occur in the bathroom than any other. The danger is also compounded because there is a social stigma to reach the bathroom as soon as possible, to avoid any embarrassing accidents. Unfortunately, the aging process reduces the body’s ability to “hold it” as effectively as it could when you were younger.
Therefore, the obstacles in the bathroom, combined with reduced mobility, and urgency mix to create a dangerous situation. In-home caregivers provide judgment-free toileting and incontinence assistance, to ensure that you can continue to use the bathroom safely and comfortably.
Care and Companionship
So far, this post has focused on the mechanical services an in-home caregiver can provide. However, the caregiver is more than a Roomba or a robot; your caregiver is a person. Just as important as mobility assistance and nutrition is companionship. As people age, they become more isolated – not by choice – but by circumstance. It becomes harder to move about the city, friends and family pass on, and the world becomes less familiar. However, just because it gets harder, doesn’t mean that you have to give up companionship. You have your family and loved ones but they work and have other obligations, they need to focus on building their lives. In-home caregivers can fill part of the companionship role; they cannot replace your friends and family, but caregivers can be there to chat about sweet nothings, just as you would on any other typical day.
Moreover, numerous studies find that companionship can reduce the effects and development of dementia. It cannot stop dementia, but it can make it more bearable to deal with and address. In-home caregivers understand the critical role they fill in helping you deal with dementia.
Home Chores
Finally, caregivers can help you with your chores. Just because you’re getting old doesn’t mean that the laundry will start to wash and fold itself (at least, not until Silicon Valley invents a robot that can do that). You still have chores to do and a house to maintain.
Laundry
In-home caregivers can help you take care of your laundry. Yes, they will separate the whites from the coloreds and the delicates from the regulars. They can also help you with dry-cleaning, folding, ironing, and putting away clean clothes. Your clothes can stay fresh and clean.
Light Housekeeping
In-home caregivers can also help you keep up your house. They aren’t maids; they are companions who can help you dust, tidy up, vacuum, mop, clean surfaces, and organize drawers. Staying healthy and happy in old age is about keeping your life together and organized.
Think about how you were when you were a young adult and middle-aged. You were in control; you had a job, a home, and a family. You had obligations and fulfilled them from cleaning the dishes to taking your kids to baseball practice. Accomplishing these tasks makes you and everyone else feel good like they are asserting control over their destiny.
As you age, it is normal for your home to fall into a bit of disarray – even if you have a loved one who can help you; you’re now asking your loved one to care for their home and yours – it isn’t possible. An in-home caregiver helps you reclaim that control by keeping your house orderly and just the way you remember it.
Medication Reminders
There are a dozen-and-one ways to remember to take your medication from beepers, alarm clocks, and buzzers. However, these are merely devices designed to startle you and hopefully trigger a memory to take your medicine. In-home caregivers can help remind you to take your medicine, and they can open bottles, read labels, and help you take the medication as prescribed.
Groceries and Errands
Finally, groceries and errands are another task that falls by the wayside as you age or if you are recovering from a procedure. Depending on the severity of your condition, you may not be able to drive which significantly limits the types of errands and groceries you can purchase. In-home caregivers can help you get to your errands and take care of them. Moreover, your caregiver can purchase groceries for you, or if you want out of the house, you can go along – the flexibility in service means that you stay in control.
In-Home Dementia Care Near Me
Do you or a loved one need in-home care assistance in Los Angeles? Then give Mom's Home Care a call at 323-244-4789 or visit further pages of our home care website. We understand the difficulties of aging, the loss of control, and of independence. Our staff understands that caring for you is more than cleaning your house and picking up your pills; it's about giving you emotional and mental fulfillment; it's about companionship, and it's about your family. Our staff doesn’t work to replace loved ones; we work to supplement and assist them. We are primarily concerned with ensuring that you and your family get the help they need.
