Do You Have Questions About Elder Care?

Elder care services are designed to help your dad maintain his independence while aging. How much do you know about this essential service? It’s time to find out more about all that elder care offers to older adults.

What Does Elder Care Help With?

What can elder care aides help with? Start with transportation. Your dad can no longer drive. If he has a doctor’s appointment, needs to go shopping, or wants to visit friends, he has to arrange a ride with you or another family member. He can have a caregiver drive him to appointments, wait until he’s done, and bring him back home.

Caregivers can clean your dad’s home and do the laundry. They vacuum, sweep, dust, clean hard surfaces, and wash the dishes. His caregivers can take out the trash and recycling, put all clean laundry away, and water house plants.

If your dad no longer cooks for himself, his caregiver can. He’ll have home-cooked meals, and he even has someone to eat with when it’s ready.

Your dad’s caregiver can join him on his daily walks. Instead of him going out on his own, he has a caregiver with him. It may be all it takes to help him gain the confidence to walk farther.

How Does It Work?

Once you’ve scheduled home care services, the caregiver assigned to your dad arrives at his home with a list of things your dad needs help completing for the day. The caregiver is there for several hours or the entire day. You may have a team of caregivers working in shifts to provide 24-hour home care.

After the caregiver’s shift ends, the caregiver creates a report that you’ll be able to see. You’ll know what’s been completed, if the caregiver experienced any issues, and if your dad’s health or mobility seems to have worsened. This is helpful if you’re a long-distance family caregiver. You have a set of eyes on your dad to make sure he’s getting the help he needs.

What Happens if an Aide Doesn’t Show Up?

One of the biggest fears families have is having a caregiver not show up as scheduled. That’s not what happens. If a caregiver can’t start a car, has a sick child, or is sick, the caregiver calls in and another caregiver is scheduled to go to your dad’s house.

He may have to adjust to having a different caregiver for the day, but his caregivers always have a list of what needs to be completed before they leave for the day. He’s never going to be alone on a day he was expecting caregivers.

If you still have questions about elder care services or want to schedule caregiver visits, reach out to a home care advisor. You’ll get answers to any remaining questions and learn more about the cost of home care.