What Are the Basics of Respite Care?

Author: Home Helpers Home Care
Respite care offers families a wide range of services, depending on what they need at any given time. When families are ready for this type of assistance, they can customize the experience they have, whether that’s just companionship for seniors or if the care offered involves more in-depth assistance with daily tasks. Here are the basics about respite and how these professional caregivers can help both seniors and the family caregivers who love them.
Supervision While Family Caregivers Are Away
The most basic support available from respite care providers is supervision while family caregivers are away. This might be necessary for seniors who have mobility trouble, cognitive difficulties, or who face other challenges that make being alone dangerous or complicated. While family caregivers are away, seniors and respite care providers might do any number of things together, like reading together, playing games, or just talking. As needs change, seniors may need different types of support.
Companionship and Socialization
Another major benefit of having respite caregivers available is that they genuinely like to spend time with seniors. They can socialize with aging adults, talking with them and offering them the companionship that they need. Spending time with other people is just as important for seniors as it is for family caregivers because it allows them to have different experiences and engagement.
Help with Activities of Daily Living
Some seniors need supervision and companionship while family caregivers are away, but they also need help with activities of daily living. Home care assistance is there to help with mobility, getting dressed, eating meals, and more. These are tasks that family caregivers might typically help seniors with, and that seniors still need help managing when family caregivers are away.
Assistance with Light Household Tasks
Another common task that family caregivers tend to manage on their own involves light housekeeping tasks like laundry, dusting, or tidying up. These are tasks that are essential for running a household, but they also keep seniors healthier and happier at the same time. Taking care of these tasks helps to reduce clutter, reduces allergen exposure, and helps seniors with hygiene concerns, too.
Personalized Attention and Help
Respite care offers family caregivers and seniors personalized help and attention on a consistent basis. As seniors need more care and assistance, respite caregivers can adjust the care that they offer. Likewise, respite can be flexible to meet the needs of family caregivers. There might be slower times when family caregivers may not need help getting the respite time that they need. But during busier times, family caregivers may need more time away to take care of other responsibilities or simply for self-care.
Sometimes family caregivers feel like they aren’t busy enough or overwhelmed enough to need time away from caregiving duties. But that’s not the case in reality. Every caregiver needs time away just to take a break and to recover. Respite care allows family caregivers to have the time and the space that they need in order to come back to caregiving refreshed and able to handle everything that seniors need.
If you or an aging loved one are considering respite care in Schererville, IN, please contact the caring staff at Home Helpers Home Care of NW Indiana today at (219) 244-2533.
Home Helpers Home Care of NW Indiana provides exceptional home and facility care for seniors in Highland, Munster, Crown Point, Schererville, Dyer, Saint John, Valparaiso, Cedar Lake, Griffith, Lowell and the surrounding areas.