5 Ways In-Home Care Helps Family Caregivers

You spend hours each week helping your mom with her daily care needs. While you’re busy taking care of her, are you taking care of yourself? Do you find yourself overwhelmed by all you’re doing? Here are five ways in-home care aides help family caregivers.

Plan and Prepare Meals

When you’re at work all day, the last thing you really want to do is stop at your mom’s house, cook her dinner, and head home to cook dinner for yourself and your kids. It’s exhausting.

Arrange to have caregivers helping your mom plan and prepare meals. Your mom’s caregiver will talk to her about what she wants, help her create a shopping list, and even order groceries or take her shopping.

When it’s time to eat, your mom’s caregiver cooks for her. If your mom wants company while she eats, that’s always possible.

Complete Housework Saves Time

Each week, you spend several hours cleaning your mom’s home, changing her sheets, making her bed with fresh sheets, and taking out the trash. Those hours could be spent together having fun at the theater, enjoying a walk at the beach, or watching a movie.

In-home care aides can vacuum and sweep the floors. They can wash dishes, dust, and wipe down the counters and hard surfaces. Caregivers will take out the trash and recyclables, do the laundry, and make the bed.

Have Regular Access to Transportation

Your mom doesn’t drive anymore, but that doesn’t mean you have to keep taking time off. In-home care aides can take her to her appointments, bring her shopping, or take her out of the house for a change of pace.

With someone else driving your mom, you no longer feel the pressure to take an afternoon off for her eye exam one day and arrive to work late on another. You can schedule your time off for the appointments you feel are the most pertinent to attend.

Assist With Hygiene and Grooming

Your mom isn’t comfortable with you helping her with personal care. She needs help washing her hair when she takes a shower, but you’re not the person who wants to help her out.

Have home care aides help your mom with all aspects of hygiene and grooming. She’ll have help washing her hair, styling it after, and getting dressed. Nail care and skin care are also possible when you arrange in-home care.

Take Time Off

Think back. When was the last time you had a day off? Has it been weeks, months, years, or even never? It’s due time that you put your own care needs first and let someone else help your mom.

Do these services sound essential to your mom’s care needs? Talk to an in-home care specialist to learn more about these and other services.