What Does it Mean to Be a Caregiver?

Home Care in Herndon VA

When you initially began caring for your elderly loved one, you might have done so due to an emergency situation that necessitated that you start immediately. That can often mean that you really didn’t get to think through what caregiving would mean for you and the changes that it would bring to your relationship with your loved one.

Caregivers Understand Their Own Limitations

Caregivers need to be aware that although they’re helping someone else, they aren’t superhuman themselves. Just like other people, they have limitations. Someone who is providing care for an elderly loved one has individual abilities, levels of patience, time constraints, and a whole host of other limits.

Caregivers Include Everyone’s Needs, Especially Their Own

Truly being a caregiver means that you’re constantly reevaluating care plans to make sure that they’re working. This also means including yourself in those plans. So when you realize that it’s been a month since the last time you got together with a friend, it’s time to schedule that in. You’re just as important as everyone else in the plan.

Caregivers Accept Help

Although it can be difficult for caregivers to come to terms with the fact that they also need assistance, good caregivers accept that help joyfully. It might take a little bit of practice or even bringing in outside help in the form of elder care providers, but eventually it becomes second nature.

Caregivers Advocate for Their Elderly Loved Ones

One piece that new caregivers sometimes find surprising is that they often need to be their care recipient’s advocate. What this means is that sometimes you have to be the one to request specific services for your loved one or to make sure that her needs are met. It’s not always easy and it can get uncomfortable sometimes, but you’re working for the best situation possible for your loved one.

Caregiving Is a Long-term Situation

Often caregivers don’t realize when they take over the task that this isn’t a short-term solution for most elderly loved ones. It’s also often a transitional stage, where you might start out offering your loved one only a certain level of care and then work up to daily physical and emotional care.

Caregiving is complex but extremely rewarding for both you and your loved one.

If you or an aging loved one are considering home care in Herndon, VA, call the caring staff at Medical Professionals On Call today. 703-273-8818

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Michelle DeFilippis

I graduated with a BS degree and had been selling medical equipment to hospitals, clinics and technicians. More recently, a family member was diagnosed with dementia and we, as a family, realized we were not prepared t care for her. We were thrown into that whirlpool of hospital stays, 24/7 live-in care, skilled care, caring for mom ourselves and finally, now daily home care. This was such a stressful time that I started thinking there had to be other people, other families as overwhelmed and unprepared as we were.

Medical Professionals On Call has such a caring, professional staff who are available to step in with whatever level of care necessary for loved ones and to relieve you of that stress.

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