Elder Home Care

No one wants to put their parents, grandparents, or other elderly family member in a nursing care facility but there may come a time when this might happen. If they can function in some capacity at home with some help then it might be advisable to hire elder home care personnel to come to their home and help with daily chores, bathing, dressing, cooking, taking them to their doctor's appointments, and more. To ensure that you are hiring the right caregiver here are some characteristics that you should look for.

One of the characteristics you should look for is flexibility. Yes, many times each caregiver has a specific shift they work but sometimes things can happen and the next elder home care personnel may be running a few minutes late due to a car emergency, unexpected traffic, etc. You want to make sure that the caregiver who is there is flexible enough that they can stay over a few minutes until the other caregiver gets there. This is very important because in some cases the elderly may not be able to be left alone for even a few minutes. One example is if the elderly is suffering from an early form of dementia or gets confused easily they could accidentally try to cook themselves something to eat and burn themselves or leave the stove on, possibly causing a fire, or they could wander off. You want to make sure that your elder parent is taken care of at all times.

You also want to make sure that the caregiver pays attention to their patient, especially in regards to how they are acting. Most elderly see their physician's once a month or maybe every three months so the caregiver should be aware of any changes they might notice in how their elderly patient is acting, their skin color, their energy level, whether they are eating and how much, etc. When anything out of the ordinary medical wise is noticed it can be addressed as soon as possible. This can help to prevent their elderly patient from becoming ill and suffering from a serious illness, hospitalization, or even death.

An elderly home caregiver should also be willing to sit and listen to their patient talk. In addition to listening to them talk the caregiver should have some interests the same as their patient so they can talk about their interests, play games such as cards with them, watch their favorite shows with them, etc. Some caregivers will even take their patients out for a drive, to have lunch out, to visit their friends, and more. A good elder home care personnel needs to have the ability to take care of their patient but also to be a companion.

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