When you notice that a person you love is facing challenges while performing everyday tasks and taking care of themselves, you might want to consider hiring someone to help them. I know it is difficult to admit that your grandparents, parents or other family members are becoming unable to function on their own, but it’s better to face that fact sooner than later. Even though nobody likes to be dependent on the good will of other people, hiring help is often the best idea.
The most important decision you need to make in this regard is whether you want to get private home help or put your loved ones in a nursing home. If you take a moment to ask them what they would want, I am pretty sure that there would be only one answer. It would be highly unusual to hear someone say that they want to live in a nursing home, away from the place they have spent their whole life in.
While there is absolutely nothing wrong with nursing homes, it’s usually much better to respect the decision of the people you love and make sure to provide them the help they need while living at their own homes. The psychological effect of staying where they are while getting someone to take care of them might even help them be more successful in their fight against certain medical conditions. When the elderly get used to a specific place, changing the surroundings might affect them negatively.
After deciding to hire private home help for a family member, there are some things you will need to take into consideration in order to get the best possible service for them. Surely, you don’t want to put just any person in charge of their wellbeing. For the perfect experience, you need to make a careful and well-informed decision. Let me give you a few private home help tips that you absolutely need to know in order to hire the right people.
Carefully Consider The Needs Of The Elderly Person
Before hiring anyone, it’s best that you have an honest and open conversation with the person you feel needs help. Ask them what exactly they would like to get help with. Whether it’s simple grocery shopping and house cleaning, or they need assistance with their personal hygiene and medication, or they would love to have someone to talk to from time to time, it’s important to carefully consider their needs.
As people get older, they tend to get more stubborn. They want to hold on tight to their independence and often refuse to admit they need help. If this is the case you are facing, you will have to be very observant in order to spot the areas they need assistance in, even when they won’t admit it. It becomes your responsibility to find exactly what they need. Read this to learn how to spot the signs that they do need help even if they aren’t ready to make peace with that fact.
Make Sure To Find Respectful Caregivers
Is there anything worse than seeing someone laugh at an elderly person who needs help and looking at them as a burden? People tend to forget that those same persons were once also young and strong and that they are probably having a hard time adjusting to their lack of independence. If you hire a disrespectful person to come and help them around, they will only have an even harder time adjusting to the situation, which will lead to them becoming more mentally fragile and delicate.
It should go without saying that you need to find people who will respect your loved ones, no matter what they might be struggling with. You want to hire someone who won’t look at them as objects that eventually provide them with paychecks. The people you decide to hire must be caring, loving and respectful and they must observe the person in need as a human being, as someone who needs help instead of simply a client they are obliged to look after for some period of time.
Empathy Is Key
Could you try and put yourself in the shoes of the ageing people? How do you think they feel about not being able to perform certain tasks on their own anymore? This must be a rather confusing and difficult time for them and if they don’t have anyone who understands them by their side, things will only get more difficult and more confusing.
Read this to understand the connection between empathy and healthcare: https://www.the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/122137/empathy-patients-and-caregivers
Since you want things to get much easier for your loved ones, you need to try hard to find an empathetic caregiver. They must be able to connect properly with the person they are taking care of, in order to really get invested and provide actual help. Having someone to understand them will definitely improve the quality of life of your elderly family member.
*collaborative post
