Being a family caregiver is a lot of work. You may not realize it just yet, but you’re going to have more and more responsibilities as your journey continues. Managing your workload as a caregiver now is vital.
Update Everyone All at Once
You really don’t have to update all of your elderly family member’s other family members individually. Set up a system, whether that’s a group email or some other method, whereby you’re saying or writing things once. People can follow up with questions, but if you’re spending a ton of time updating people individually, you’re going to get worn out quickly.
Find Help in as Many Areas as Possible
You may find that you need to offload some of your own life responsibilities in order to take better care of your elderly family member. If you have children, perhaps there are age-appropriate chores they can take on. You may want to look into finding someone to help you cook and clean so that you can free up more of your time.
Take Care of Yourself
If you’re not taking care of yourself properly, you cannot expect to keep up with taking care of your aging family member. Make sure that you’re getting the rest that you need, eating good foods, and doing what you need to do for your health. This also means taking time away from caregiving.
Talk to Your Employer
Your employer may be far more helpful in your caregiving journey than you might suspect. Many employers offer assistance finding senior care providers, offer counseling, or can point you to the right direction with other assistance that you need. Often you don’t know about these resources until you ask.
Be Selfish Now and Again
Remember that you may need to be “selfish” once in a while. When you’re feeling run down, acknowledge that you need a break. This isn’t truly selfish, but it may feel that way at first. You have to be able to keep caring for your elderly family member and that means being good to yourself.
Look for other ways that you can minimize what you’re responsible for as a family caregiver. You may be able to find solutions you didn’t think were possible.
IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE ARE CONSIDERING IN-HOME SENIOR CARE IN LAS VEGAS, NV, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT GOLDEN HEART SENIOR CARE. CALL TODAY 702-800-4616.