Showing love and care to your elderly parents is important. Unfortunately, many people get challenges in providing the best care they would want for their parents. They have their family to take care of and chores to do. At the same time, they need to report to work on time.
These challenges are possible to overcome if you arrange for home care. You will get relieved to do more for your family, and it may help create stronger bonds with your parents. The main challenge you might face is choosing the right home care. These tips will help you choose the best home care for your parents.
Decide the type of care your elderly member needs
Home care services help your elderly family members to live better and safely at home when they get older. Before you engage a home caregiver, decide the kind of care your parents need. They may need any of these types of services.
- They may only need someone to give them companionship
- They may need help to dress, bathe, or do other key activities
- They could require rehabilitation or therapy
- They might require help to do tasks around the home and for safety
- They may require nursing care due to disease or illness.
These are points that you should give attention to when deciding the type of home care you need to arrange. It will help you choose the right kind of caregiver that makes sure your parent gets the best. Depending on their unique needs, you may require to choose more than one caregiver, although this is a rare issue. This is certainly a time-taking task and might disturb your work schedule, especially if you are looking for a job. In such cases, your best partner will be the resume help offered by professionals.
Search for home care services providers
For each kind of care your elderly parent needs, you will get many home care provider options. It is not easy to choose one care provider from a list of twenty or more providers. To make your search easier, several steps can be important.
Talk to your friends, family, or doctor
Your friends or other family members might have used home care services. Even if they may not have used them, they may have clues about the best providers. Don’t shy away, but be open and speak to them. Write down the ideas or insights that they give you. Another person to speak to is your doctor. Doctors are in the field of healthcare which involves a lot of things. Explain to them the exact kind of care they want and get recommendations from your doctor.
Check reviews
Like any other company, home care providers get reviews for their service quality. Some home care providers get more positive reviews because they provide unique services. You may want to consider the services that have the highest positive reviews. You can also visit Careersbooster for helpful tips on what you should consider while hiring someone, what to see in a candidate’s resume or you can even use it for you building your resume.
Call or visit the home care providers
Another option is to call different providers. Before you call, write down the questions that you would want to ask them. The questions will guide you while comparing a list of different services. You may also visit the care providers and observe the services they provide. Ask as many questions as possible.
Consider your budget
Home care service providers are skilled professionals. For example, if your parents need medical care, they require in-home nursing. Each professional may charge differently. Some home care providers collaborate with professionals to provide the best home care services. Check your budget to decide if you will manage to meet the cost. Budgeting is crucial to avoid stress once the home caregiver steps in to support your elderly member.
Different types of home care services
Your elderly parents may either require social care or health care. Social care focuses on daily activities that help make living better. They are services such as feeding, dressing, and social interaction. Social interactions involve services such as ensuring safety, going for walks, purchasing personal care items, and companionship like someone to talk with.
Health care focuses on giving medical care to your elderly member. It may include therapy, administering medicine, tests, ambulance services when needed, and any other service that ensures your elderly member stays healthy.
Under both social care and health care, you have different options.
Nursing care: Under nursing care, you arrange with a professional nurse who works under the guidance of your doctor. The nurse may make daily visits or scheduled visits depending on the needs. This kind of care can be seasonal or full-time, depending on health needs.
Physician care: Physician care involves a doctor visiting your parents at home. The licensed physician visits them when care is needed, such as diagnosis or treatment.
Therapy services: Therapy care involves home visits by a therapist to perform therapies like speech, physical, or occupational to improve their quality of life.
Social services: Social services may involve counseling or other types of extensive care needs.
Companionship: Companionship services focus on supervision, providing company, meals, cleaning, and helping them move around.
Private live-in care
You can arrange for private live-in care for your elderly parents. In this type of arrangement, a care provider comes to live with your parent full time. Instead of coming and going, they stay with them 24/7 to give you peace of mind that there is someone with your parent continually.
Before you bring in someone to live with your parent, make sure that you prepare them psychologically first. They will be surprised and take offense to suddenly finding someone living with them in their home. Let them give their opinion too to help them feel they were part of the decision. Make arrangements for the facilities the caretaker will be using.
