When your senior needs your help the most, you might have to be somewhere else. It’s not always that easy to uproot your own life in order to offer care to the people you love in person, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to be able to help at all.
Find a Way to Keep Information Handy
One of the worst feelings as a long-distance caregiver is not knowing what you need to know when you need to know it. The best way to resolve that issue is to find the best way for you to keep information at your fingertips. For some caregivers, that means keeping a three-ring binder with important paperwork and notes. For others, that can mean keeping information in digital files that sync from phone to computer to tablet. Whatever it is that works for you, lean into it. If the system you’re using isn’t easy to access and to update, you’re going to abandon it and end up feeling lost.
Set up Regular Check-ins
It’s vital that you and your senior are able to communicate about what’s going on with her. There’s a time and a place for checking in on a purely emotional level, of course. But when you’re a long-distance caregiver, your primary focus is about making sure your senior is safe and doing well on multiple levels. Scheduling regular check-ins that allow you to assess your senior’s needs can help immensely. Make a set appointment with your senior to do exactly that, and keep those check-ins focused on addressing issues.
Consider Personal Care at Home
As much as you might want to, you may not be able to handle everything yourself from afar. As your senior’s needs change, having personal care at home may be even more crucial for her. By sticking with your scheduled check-in appointments, you and your senior can talk about what she’s having trouble managing and how you can put solutions in place to help with that. Ramping up help from elderly care providers can fill those gaps as you and your senior identify them.
Developing a plan and being able to adjust that plan as necessary can help you and your senior to manage her care no matter how far away you have to be. And when you’re not able to see what’s going on in person, relying on personal care at home to give you accurate information makes all the difference.
IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING PERSONAL CARE AT HOME IN MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY (408) 317-4969.