Before you dive head on into family caregiving, you need to look more closely at what you’re able and willing to do. This helps you to make sure you’re going into this with your eyes open and knowing what you’re up against.
What’s Your Own Health Like?
One of the biggest factors in your own readiness to be a caregiver is likely to be your own health. Caregiving demands a lot and it requires that you’re taking care of yourself as well as taking care of your senior. If it’s difficult now to keep up with the demands of your own health issues, that is likely to get worse as you spend more time being a caregiver.
Distance May Be Another Concern
Another factor that can affect your ability to be a caregiver could be your geographical distance from your aging family member. If you’re living far away, you might not be able to get to your senior as often as you or she would like. There may not be other family members or friends that she can rely on near her, either.
Your Relationship with Your Senior May Be a Factor
Every relationship isn’t the same. Over the years, you and your elderly family member may have had some issues. That doesn’t mean that you don’t want to be there for her now in her time of need, but you also can’t pretend that isn’t a factor. What you do need to determine is whether that relationship is something that you can repair and if you’re willing to do that work.
Are You Able to Be a Caregiver?
Something else to ask yourself is whether you’re up to being a caregiver. You may have other demands in your life that take up your time and energy to the extent that you’re not really able to be the caregiver that you want to be. That is something to consider before you jump right into taking over caregiving duties. Defining your boundaries is important, because if you’re trying to do more than you can do, you may run into issues quicker than you expect.
New caregivers often don’t have an idea what help is out there for them. If that’s the case for you, explore how elderly care services can offer solutions to some of these issues for you, making family caregiving a lot easier and beneficial for you and for your senior.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering elder care in Lodi, CA, please contact the caring staff at Provident Care Home Care today at (209) 578-1210.
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