What Can Alzheimer’s Caregivers Do For Your Parent?
With a parent with Alzheimer’s disease, it can be difficult to balance their care with everything else in your life. People with Alzheimer’s or dementia have a long list of needs that only gets longer as the disease progresses. From consistent routines to diet plans to mental stimulation to constant supervision, the task of caregiving for a parent can be overwhelming when piled on top of an already full and busy life.
One way to keep the burden from overwhelming you would be to bring on an outside caregiver to help you with everyday tasks before they take a toll. Here are some of the many ways an Alzheimer’s caregiver can help you and your affected parent.
1. Activities
One of the many effects of Alzheimer’s or dementia is a breakdown of a person’s ability to have unassisted day-to-day lives. As simple as it may seem to spend more time helping out your mom or dad, doing it every single day can just be too much. An outside caregiver can take on some of that and work with your parent with all sorts of normal activities, including exercise routines, reading, socializing, cooking, crafts, shopping, cleaning, running errands, personal care, pet care and more.
2. Company
One reason why we’re called Keeping Good Company is because that’s exactly what we do! We know you’d like to be able to spend all of your time with a sick parent, but unfortunately, that just isn’t how life works. Our caregivers approach every client with a warm, friendly, empathetic spirit and can make sure that your parent feels listened to and entertained when you aren’t physically able to be there for them.
3. Routine
When dealing with Alzheimer’s or dementia patients, doctors always recommend keeping a regular routine to help with a sense of stability or normalcy. If your schedule can’t accommodate managing your own routine as well as someone else, a caregiver can step in and take on some of that responsibility. A caregiver can help ensure that your parent maintains a grooming routine, takes his or her meds on time, exercises at the same time each day, etc.
4. Safety
Even if things with mom or dad haven’t gotten terribly bad, Alzheimer’s or dementia can be unpredictable. A caregiver can give you peace of mind knowing someone will be there to supervise daily activities and prevent falls and accidents in the home when you can’t be there yourself.
5. Time management
Caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s or dementia involves much more than day-to-day activities. Hiring a caregiver can free up some of your time so that you can spend it working on some more difficult or personal matters, such as long-term financial planning or assigning a power of attorney. For most people, juggling all of these responsibilities at once is a recipe for burnout.
6. Tracking updates and progress
When you’re juggling caregiving on your own with all of your other responsibilities, it can be difficult to prioritize tracking, planning, and goal-setting for your parent’s treatment, but these factors can be integral in making real progress. Part of a caregiver’s job can be to help you keep detailed notes about progress, behaviors, updates, and setbacks when it comes to your parent’s care.
Avoid Caregiver Burnout with Keeping Good Company
Anybody who starts to help out a sick parent needs to understand that they are taking on the role of caregiver, even if it doesn’t feel right to think about it like that. If you just look at it as helping mom or dad with life here or there, you may not be honest with yourself about what he or she really needs and how much you can realistically handle without burning out.
With the help of compassionate caregivers, you can help keep your parents at home and help them (and you) get some of their life back. When people are treated with respect by compassionate caregivers, they often start to let their guard down and focusing on living again.
Schedule an Assessment Today
Before starting any sort of commitment, we will work with you to assess your needs and discover how we can significantly improve your life and the life of your loved one. For more information on scheduling a free, no-obligation assessment meeting, simply contact us at 573-289-9767 or info@KGCseniorcare.com.
