Some Assisted Living Communities Offer Caregiver Support
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Looking after another human being, whether it’s a young child or an aging parent, can be overwhelming. There can be times when you want to give up when you don’t feel like you are doing the right thing, are losing ground in your own life, or simply don’t know what to do next. If you’re caring for an aging parent, the stress of this can take a significant toll on your own life. It can affect your health, personal relationships, job, and much more. Most people who take on the role of a family caregiver consider it their duty, their responsibility to provide this type of elder care for a loved one. They never look at other caregiver options, including assisted living.
Yet, if you continue down this path, taking the burden on yourself without any break, you could find yourself dealing with serious health issues, needing support for your everyday needs, and where would that leave your mother in this example?
Don’t think of assisted living as only a permanent, long-term solution.
Caregiver Five Forks SC – Some Assisted Living Communities Offer Caregiver Support
Some quality, local assisted living communities do offer respite care options. These are short-term solutions that can help the overwhelmed family caregiver get a much-needed break from the work he or she is doing.
Respite care could be a week or two at a time. It could even be a few days each week. It might even include overnight stays at the facility, which could be a great relief to you if you worry about your mother in the middle of the night when you’re not there with her.
How do you take advantage of respite care?
Contact a local assisted living community and find out what respite care options — if any — they offer currently. Depending on availability, they might have all options available. Then you can sit down with your elderly loved one and talk about these respite care services.
Your parent may be resistant to the idea of moving from their home right now, but most seniors don’t know what assisted living is or what it offers. They have misconceptions about it, so they dismiss it and lump it in with other elder care services.
If you can convince your parent to give it a try, even for a couple of days a week, they might see how beneficial assisted living could be full-time.
What could respite care offer you?
It can offer your elderly parent a great opportunity to see from the inside what assisted living is and does. For you, it can allow you to take that much-needed vacation without worrying about what your parent is up to, if they are safe, or if they are enjoying themselves. It can also provide you the chance to breathe easily when you go home at night and not have to worry about your parent, especially if they take advantage of the overnight stay options.
There are numerous advantages to respite care at assisted living, so why not look into it now with a local facility?
