If your senior has expressed a desire to age in place, she’s letting you know that she wants to keep her life as close to how it is now for as long as she can. Her health and other circumstances may not make that possible, but it’s important to look at what needs to happen in order for her to even attempt to age in place.
Make Sure You Understand What She Needs
What your senior needs from you right now might seem complicated, even if it isn’t. This might be the first time that you’re having to step in as a caregiver, and if you’re not sure what her daily needs are now and in the near future, it’s difficult to be able to say exactly what can help her to stay right where she is for as long as possible. So it’s important to sit down with her and determine what will help her to meet those goals.
What Can You Do?
Where are you as a caregiver? If you live far away from your senior, it might feel difficult to do as much as you might need to do for her. Time and energy are two things that you might have in very short supply, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help. Figure out what exactly you can do now and in the immediate future for your senior.
There’s a Difference in What She Needs and What You Can Do
There might be a pretty significant shortfall between what you can do and what your senior needs. This is especially true if you’re new to caregiving and you’re still testing the waters. Understanding that this shortfall doesn’t mean you’re a bad caregiver or a bad person is really important because it allows you to focus on how to solve the problem instead of beating yourself up.
Line up Assistance Wherever You Can
Senior care providers are an excellent resource to be able to turn to in this situation. They know an awful lot about helping aging adults to continue to live where they want for as long as possible. They can help you to determine what other resources are necessary for your senior as well, which gives you the backup you need.
Reassess How Well Your Solutions Are Working Regularly
Things are going to change, so you’re going to need to reassess what’s happening now and then. Your senior’s needs are going to change as she ages in place. Your own ability to help more or to help even less is also going to change depending on your other commitments. When you make reassessing a regular part of what you do, you’re going to be less surprised by these changes as they happen.
The longer that your senior is able to age in place, the more comfortable these later years of her life are going to be for her. If you can help her to increase that time as much as possible, that’s huge.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Home Health Care in Wadell, AZ, please contact the caring staff at Home Care Resources at (602) 443-4700
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