What Should You Consider When Providing Home Care to an Aging Parent?

Providing care to an aging parent often seems like the best choice. It can also be very stressful.

If you haven’t planned ahead for different situations, you may find yourself overwhelmed. Here are some of the things you must consider when providing home care to your parent who wants to age in place.

Home Health Care in Springfield VA: Providing Home Care

You Will Forfeit Some Freedom

When you care for a parent who wants to age at home, you lose some freedom. Even if your parent doesn’t need 24-hour care, you need to be there on a regular basis. If you hold a job, those hours often come from the weekends that you once had as free time.

To accommodate your parent’s needs, you may have to give up dinners out with friends, weekend getaways, and lazy days where you don’t leave the house. If you move your parent in with you or move into your parent’s home, you lose privacy, too.

Your Parent May Not Always Be Agreeable

For decades, your parent was the boss of the household. You were told what to do while your parent raised you. Switching roles is a challenge. Your parent may not like you saying what needs to be done and when. It can lead to arguments, harsh words, and hurt feelings.

You need a lot of patience when dealing with an agitated, scared, or angry elderly parent. When big decisions need to be made, you need to make sure that it looks like it was your mom or dad’s idea, too. On appointment days, you may need to bribe your parent with lunch or a trip to a spa in order to get your parent out of the house.

It May Not Be Feasible to Handle Everything

With some chronic conditions, there may be home care tasks that you cannot handle. If your parent needs to wear adult diapers, could you really change it? Would your parent want you to? If your parent requires a wheelchair, is the house equipped for it? Could you install a stairlift and ramps into the home?

You Need Breaks

Many caregivers burnout after months of routinely providing all of their parent’s care. Don’t let that happen to you. Take breaks when they’re needed. Use respite care services from a home care agency to go out with friends, have a date night or go for a walk alone.

Respite care is essential. If you have questions about this service, talk to a home care specialist. You can get answers to your questions, find out rates, and schedule a caregiver. Call today to get started.

Are you or a loved-one considering Home Health Care in Springfield, VA?  Please call the caring staff at Medical Professionals On Call today. Contact: 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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