First Choice In-Home Care Blog

Caring for someone you love who suffers from Alzheimer's is a difficult and sometimes heartbreaking task. Yet, for many caregivers and care recipients dealing with this issue, the thought of moving a loved one from a home he or she has loved for many years is undesirable. What can you do to help your senior stay at home as long as possible, while still ensuring a high quality of care?

Making the Home Environment Safe

In order to ensure the safety of your loved one, it is essential to consider the home environment in which he or she lives. Are there areas of the home that will be unsafe as memory loss or dementia increases?

In a perfect world, your loved ones would never come to a point where they need help with activities of daily living. They would live independently and continue to prosper indefinitely.

However, this is not a perfect world. If you are facing the fact that your parents can no longer handle some of the aspects of completely independent living, you are likely wondering how to help them see the realities of their situation. What can you do to help them take advantage of the opportunities that home healthcare may afford them?

Assessing the Need

In some cases, your loved one may experience a life or health event that makes it clear that home health is required. When this happens, your loved one may readily agree to the idea of hiring a home health agency to help out.

In other cases, however, your loved one's circumstances may change so gradually that he or she is often unaware of a growing need for assistance. When this happens, helping your loved one make an honest assessment of his or her needs requires patience and skill.

If you are the primary caregiver for a loved one, you are to be commended. Likely, you struggle with the financial and emotional challenges of caregiving on a daily basis. The good news is that help is available to you in the form of home health care.

Many caregivers feel that choosing the option of home healthcare is cost-prohibitive. However, a careful look at the numbers in your situation may reveal that home healthcare is surprisingly affordable. Here are some things to consider when crunching the numbers:

1) How much money are you spending to get things done without a home health agency?

While this may seem an odd question, it is something to consider. Caregiver statistics provided by the Family Caregiver Alliance indicate that, on average, family caregivers spend 24.4 hours each week providing care to a loved one. Nearly 1 in 4 caregivers spend 41 hours or more each week providing care.

If you spend this kind of time caring for your loved one, chances are that you are unable to handle other essential chores alone. For instance, have you had to hire out things that you used to handle on your own such as lawn care, laundry service, or housecleaning? Do you find yourself eating out more because you simply do not have time to prepare your own meals anymore?

These costs mount. When you consider how much money you may be spending on outside services to enable you to care for the needs of your loved one, is it possible that hiring a home health professional may, in fact, be a less expensive option than what you are currently doing?

Loneliness and social isolation are serious issues facing many seniors aging in place at home. A 2012 study published in the Journal of Primary Prevention defines social isolation as "a state in which the individual lacks a sense of belonging socially, lacks engagement with others, has a minimal number of social contacts and they are deficient in fulfilling and quality relationships."

The Effect of Social Isolation on Health

Stating that social isolation is a major health problem for older adults living in the community, leading to numerous detrimental health conditions, the study estimated that as many of 43 percent of older adults living independently in the community at large are socially isolated.

Poor health outcomes for seniors who are socially isolated include:

• dementia
• an increased risk of falls and their associated injuries
• an increased risk for re-hospitalization
• an increased risk in all-cause mortality

Why does social isolation pack such a big punch for seniors? The article "Aging at Home: How Your Social Life Keeps You Healthy" points out that social isolation plays almost as much of a role in dying early as poverty does. Social isolation raises blood pressure, increases the level of stress hormones and inflammation in the body, and contributes to poor sleep and depression.

WebMd's article "Loneliness May Complicate Chronic Illness for Some" points to the results of a recent Canadian study which demonstrates that loneliness is a complicating factor among those who suffer with chronic illnesses.

The study's first author Meaghan Barlow notes: "The quality of our social ties plays a role when it comes to coping with the effects of serious disease in later life."

However, she further notes a positive finding from the study, saying: "The fact that loneliness can lead to further complications means that measures can be taken to prevent the effects from looping back around."

If you are the primary caregiver for a loved one, you understand the stresses and hardships that come with your responsibilities.

Intellectually, you may know that you need some help to handle the load.

However, it may be an emotional struggle for you to think of relegating some of your loved one's care to a professional caregiver. It is even possible that you feel that doing so indicates a personal failure of some sort.

Rest assured, however, that seeking help to handle your loved one's needs indicates, not failure, but love on your part. The reality is that, despite the best intentions of family and friends of those who require help, a professional caregiver may be able to offer your loved one a level of care that exceeds what you are able to do alone.

Here is the unvarnished truth. Caregiving is hard. If you are the primary caregiver for an aged loved one, your caregiving responsibilities likely impact your physical and emotional health, your career, your personal finances, and your relationships with others.

If you are caring for a parent, child, or sibling who is sick or disabled, you are providing caregiving services. There are several forms of caregiving ranging from formal to informal, and many family members do not consider themselves caretakers when they are helping a loved one. The position can be short term or long term, but either way, the demand for care can become overwhelming and stressful for the caregiver.

Parents with medically fragile children are often engaged in a delicate balancing act. Weighing the unique needs of your child against your own needs and ability to handle the special care for your child can be exhausting and fraught with anxiety.

In many cases, a child with special needs requires in-home healthcare. Finding healthcare providers who are professional and experienced is just as important as considering how a caregiver will fit into the family dynamic and provide the best possible situation for your child.


Finding a caregiver to handle the special needs of your child is doable, with some research and help.