Tips to Stay on Top of Caring for Your Senior Parent
If you are a family caregiver, there might be times when taking care of your elderly loved one feels like a full-time career. It can be tough to get into a routine with your elderly loved one, especially if they have numerous health conditions or other needs. Even though caregiving can be tough, there are some tips that can help you to stay on top of everything, especially with the help of elderly care.
Improving the Safety of Their Home
One of the best things you can do to take care of your elderly loved one is to improve the safety of their home. There are many elderly people who get hurt in their home because they fall, get burnt, or have another type of accident. There are some modifications that you can have made to your elderly loved one’s home to keep them safer. Some of the things that can be done include the following:
- Widen the doorway
- Modify the height of countertops
- Get safety knobs for the stove
- Install a handicap ramp on their porch
- Put in raised toilet seats
- Install grab bars by the shower and toilet in the bathroom
- Get better lighting throughout the home
If these home safety modifications are made, you can help to prevent falls and other accidents for your elderly loved one.
Be Ready for Emergencies
Do you often worry that your elderly loved one is going to have an emergency? Are you worried that you won’t be able to handle the situation quickly enough? This is a common worry amongst family caregivers. One of the things you can do to ease this worry is to be ready for emergencies. Some of the ways you can do this include the following:
- Have all important medical documents ready to go (insurance cards, medication list, etc.)
- Make a hospital bag of comfort items for your elderly love done (prepare for staying overnight)
- Be sure to have elderly care providers scheduled in case of emergency (this way if you need someone to stay with your elderly loved one, someone is available)
If you are ready for emergencies ahead of time, you won’t have to worry about these aspects when an emergency happens.
Get Extra Help from Elderly Care
While you may want to do everything by yourself, it is always good to have an extra set of hands to help out. Even if you only need to hire elderly care providers for a couple of hours every week, this could give you the break needed, so you can provide your elderly loved one with better care the rest of the week. Getting extra help is always a good idea.
Conclusion
These are some of the tips to stay on top of everything with elderly care. Now that you have these tips, you can be better prepared to give your elderly loved one all the care that they need.
Sources
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/aging-place-growing-older-home
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/8-tips-long-distance-caregiving