How Do You Know it’s Time for Your Senior to Have Additional Care?
You may find yourself wondering constantly whether now is the right time for your senior to have some more help, but as a caregiver it’s sometimes difficult to quantify. There is a lot that goes into that decision, starting with how well your elderly family member is handling things right now.
Assess Her Daily Life and Current Abilities
You need an accurate picture of what life is like on a daily basis for your aging family member. You might look at this as getting a baseline of where she’s at, especially if you’re fairly certain she only needs a little assistance. One of the ways you’re going to do this is by looking at ADLs, or activities of daily living. The basics of ADLs include things like dressing, feeding herself, and bathing. Instrumental ADLs are activities like being able to manage her own medications, take care of household chores, and make healthy meals.
Get an Official Assessment
Senior placement professionals can help you to get a more official assessment of your senior’s ability to take care of herself and to navigate ADLs successfully. They have a lot more experience than most caregivers do in spotting problem areas and situations that maybe aren’t a problem now but can quickly become one. In the absence of a major illness or injury, having a professional take on the situation is important.
Try out Senior Care
Even if you’re still on the fence about whether your senior would truly benefit from more help or not, you can give senior care a try. Set up a couple of hours a week, for instance, and see how your elderly family member feels about the experience. You may be surprised at how much even just a little bit of extra help changes her experience.
Start Thinking Now about the Future
It’s also possible that you need to start thinking now about what might be coming down the line for you and for your senior. She may be at a stage now where she’s handling most ADLs well on her own, but how long is that likely to last? Having the access now to senior care can help her to have what she needs as that situation starts to change.
Senior placement professionals can help you to get to the root of what your senior needs in terms of help and how much help she likely needs. That can be a huge weight off your mind when you’re not sure whether you’re being overprotective or not.