Parents are an integral part of the family. They form the foundation of the
relationships between the members. Their interferences can do miracles in the
tough times. Their advice carries solutions for problems based on their
real-life experiences. These are apart from their hard work to raise us and
build our
family environment. It will be the hardest revelation for them to understand that they have
grown old enough to be a burden for their children and family members.
How to find the right caregiver for your parents?
It will be the hardest decision for the children to take when they prefer to
work keeping their old dependent parents at home, helpless. This situation is
faced by most of the families around the globe at some point of time in their
lifetime. And the solutions are not so easy to be granted. Most of the
questions raised at this juncture are similar, still hard to answer. Some of
the common concerns of the family members are the subset of the following:
Budget: Whether it will be affordable for the family? To
maintain a dedicated fulltime caregiver, it affects the total family budget.
Utility and skill set: This will be the most difficult part
while choosing the caregiver. Situations demand multiple utilities for the
caregiver. The caregiver may get assigned with different types of tasks like
dietary food plans which may need food preparations, lifesaving or first-aid
skills for critically ill patients like heart patients, routine tasks like
cleaning, dressing of patients, nursing tasks like dressing wounds and
medications etc. Finding a caregiver with all the required skill set inside
the budget will be the greatest challenge for the family. Take time, test
the caregiver and choose the most suitable one.
Attitude: Attitude of the caregiver is equally important as
the skill set for the elderly care. The caregiver also needs to ensure
maximum care and patience.
Background verification: Always be safe and go for a
background check on the caregiver. Even though it is provided by the agency,
go through their profile in detail, find previous clients and ask for
endorsement on the personal details, skill sets, experiences and any
relevant detail that you may find applicable. Rule out all the chances of
security, care and quality breaches that may be of great concern.
Timings and schedule: Availability of the caregiver in the
required timings that includes the extendibility according to the
convenience of the family members. If the family members have jobs that are
not following strict timings and need prolonged office hours, and if they
need the caregiver to wait until they can reach home, it can cause frequent
confusions. The family may have to allocate budget to pay extra time
allowances or should keep a standby caregiver for such occasions.
Alternate caregiver: We must anticipate unforeseen
circumstances and unavoidable leaves of the caregiver. In the case of
specially skilled caregivers, there needs to keep a panel of them who we may
call to fill in such situations.
Quality Assurance: It is always better to get regular or
even daily feedback of the patient about the caregiver. If the patient is
not in a stage to provide valid feedback, there must be some inspection
mechanism to track the entire care process. Clients can rely on the agency
for this. So make sure such services are included in the services offered by
the agency when you choose them. Also, make sure there will be proper
communication channel available with the agency and caregiver.
The whole reason to have a caregiver for a dependent patient is to
provide care for the patient, ensure support for the family and maintain the lifestyle and income of the
family members without compromising the quality in care and peace of mind. So
apart from the common factors mentioned above, family members should consider
all their special and relevant factors before appointing a caregiver, that
help to produce the expected results in achieving that whole reason.
