Balancing Home Care and Work

Personally caring for an elderly family member in the home can be a difficult and time-consuming task. It can also be rewarding and fulfilling to take care of the people you love, and family-based home care can be great for the seniors in-need, because their loved-ones are not strangers, and through years of family life they may know how to give that person the best care. But unfortunately, the many drawbacks of this plan of care can often outweigh the benefits.

It is rare for people to have open schedules in which to take care of their loved ones full time. Especially in the rough economy of recent times, people need to work as many hours possible to make ends meet and ensure job security. This can make it very difficult to devote enough time to your senior family member to give sufficient care. Many Americans struggle every day to balance their careers with the needs of their aging loved-ones, and it can put a major strain on the caregivers, and be very damaging to their professional lives. When providing care, hours at work will inevitably be missed, and when working, it can become very difficult to remain alert due to lost sleep. One possible solution to this problem, would be to trade off caring for the senior with other family members. But this might not be an option for smaller or less closely knit families.

Another choice for care would be to get services from a home care company, such as Accredited Caregiver Specialists. Depending on your budget and schedule, this might be the best option for you and the senior needing care. In choosing what home care services might be helpful, there are several factors that you should consider: First of all, how many hours of care does the senior need? If they don't need too many hours, it might be manageable to care for them yourself. Otherwise, home care services might be helpful. Secondly, how much money would you be losing in lost wages or salary because of taking care of the senior? If this amount is higher than the rates you would be paying for a good caregiver, from a strictly money-related perspective it would be smarter to pay for home care services. But of course, money is not the only consideration.

It is a difficult choice to make, but luckily there are many options that can help improve your living situation, and the quality of life of the senior you care about.

Professional Caregiver Boundaries

In any caregiving situation, it’s important that the client and caregiver have a professional relationship. While it’s great when caregivers and clients can become friends, experience has shown that in all cases, professional boundaries should be maintained to avoid certain unfortunate situations. These unfortunate situations can occur whenever a caregiver exploits a close relationship with a client for personal gain.
One of these exploitative situations happens when a caregiver takes on a live-in assignment with a client, without having a primary residence. These situations can become especially troublesome if care is stopped for any reason, because the caregiver would then have no place to stay at all, and thus may be very apprehensive about leaving the residence. ACS prohibits this practice, and requires that live-in caregivers do not act as if they have moved in, for example, by leaving a lot of their things at the client’s residence.
A second exploitative situation can occur if caregivers attempt to manipulate clients into giving them gifts or money. We at ACS have heard horror stories about con-artist caregivers who develop unprofessional relationships with their elderly clients to help them obtain gifts, or even get written into the client’s will. To prevent anything like this from happening, ACS has a policy against large gifts between client and caregiver. Small gifts, like a client treating a caregiver to a meal are acceptable, but for items with higher dollar values, we highly discourage clients from offering them. If ACS finds out that a caregiver has accepted a large gift, we will notify those who are close with the client, such as family members or care managers, to make sure that they know about the situation. Because we discourage the acceptance of large gifts among our caregivers, we will also use this information to decide whether or not to place the caregiver with any future clients.
A third situation occurs when caregivers take clients’ resources for their own personal use. When doing grocery shopping for a client, a familiar scam that unethical caregivers might attempt, would be to purchase duplicate items, and then take half of the items for themselves. This is a way of hiding the theft by making it appear like a legitimate purchase. For this and other reasons, it can be very important for clients to not only demand that caregivers provide receipts for all purchases, but also to examine these receipts closely. Here at ACS we demand that our caregivers keep track of every penny spent, so there can be no doubt about what the money was used for. Here's some good advice for seniors seeking care: No matter how close you become with a caregiver, always be careful when that person uses your money. A good caregiver with nothing to hide will never have a problem with this.
ACS hopes that all of our clients become friends with their caregivers, but this does not mean that professional distance shouldn’t be maintained. The proper boundaries can prevent theft and exploitation, and do not discourage healthy and friendly caregiver/senior companionship.

Seniors and Emergency Situations

For seniors who need to have someone around to help them in daily life, it's important to have a caregiver who understands the proper procedures to follow during a medical emergency. A good caregiver will be perceptive of a senior’s condition at all times, and be able to realize if a medical emergency is occurring, and if so, to call 911 as soon as possible. It can be a major advantage for a caregiver to possess a cellular phone, in case an emergency happens away from a land-line. At ACS, whether or not a caregiver has a cellular phone to use in case of emergency is a major factor in matching caregivers with clients. After having reached 911 operators, the next step would be for the caregiver to follow all instructions until the senior is in the care of medical responders. The caregiver would then call the senior's emergency contacts, and travel to the hospital to be with the senior. At ACS the caregiver would then call our offices, and keep us informed, so that we can know about any changes to the senior's needs that might occur due to the emergency. The good judgment to recognize an emergency when it happens, and then follow appropriate emergency procedures is a quality that ACS demands from all of its caregivers.
To prepare for medical emergencies, in addition to the option of in-home care and keeping family close by, seniors who will be alone in the home can also consider purchasing an emergency signalling device that they could wear at all times. Various companies produce these devices, and they can make it possible for a senior to get emergency attention in incapacitating situations, such as after a bad fall, when dialing 911 might not be an option.
Everyone hopes that emergencies don't happen, but it is important to be prepared for them if they do.

Home Care and Senior Driving Safety

For senior citizens, driving can pose many hazards that younger members of the population don’t face. While elderly people usually have the benefit of many more years of driving experience, which can lead to better decision-making on the road, certain risk factors make driving generally more dangerous for seniors. Statistics have shown that people over 65 years of age are far more likely to be killed in automobile accidents than younger people. This is due to various factors, including the elderly population's greater difficulty in recovering from injuries, as well as age-related vision, hearing and coordination problems.

This is not to say that elderly people in general are dangerous on the road. Each person has different driving abilities and habits, and a decision not to drive should be based on a person’s actual driving, not based on mean stereotypes painting the elderly as bad drivers. Many of the elderly are better drivers those who are young and inexperienced, who can be reckless, acting as if they and their cars are invincible.

Nonetheless, if you or a loved one is having a hard time driving safely, it may be time to get some help, and home care services, such as those provided by ACS can offer seniors ways to get around safer. Many of ACS’ caregivers have driver’s licenses and cars, or the ability to drive client’s cars, and are able to take clients to the places they want to go. This way, elderly people who are no longer safe to drive can retain much of the same independence of transportation that they had while driving, while keeping risks low.

It can be tough to give up driving, even if you know it is no longer safe for you. Fortunately this does not mean an end to independent transportation. Home care services like ACS can help you get where you need to go.

Sources:

http://seniors.lovetoknow.com/Elderly_Driving_Statistics