How Respite Care Can Help

Chances are you’re feeling worn out. If you’ve been caring for a senior loved one non-stop it can wear you down. Constantly worrying about their safety and health can take its toll on you. Often, it leaves you with no time for the things you enjoy. And it makes it harder to enjoy the time with your senior loved one. It can impact you both mentally and physically. You need a break - both for your benefit and for the benefit of your senior loved one. It might be time to consider using respite care. With respite care you can get a break for an hour, a day time or even a weekend to refresh, to take care of things you need to do and to come back with a renewed spirit.

What Is Respite Care?

With respite care, a trained professional comes into your senior loved one’s home one to watch over them, giving you short-term relief on your caregiving journey. Many home care agencies, including Visiting Angels Columbus, offer these respite care services to give caregivers temporary relief.

The professionals can be trained in any number of services or specialties, from fall prevention, to helping with daily tasks, to reminding clients to take their medications, to dementia care.

The services can be offered for an hour or two at a time, for one day each week, or even for an extended period of time on a temporary basis. They are meant to give primary caregivers a break.

A Slice of Normalcy

When a loved one is sick, or needs constant care, everything can seem like it’s falling apart.

The life you used to have is now often consumed by caring for your senior loved one. The things you used to enjoy doing often seem to be a distant memory.

Often, you start to lose touch with other people, as everything you have is focused on caring for your loved one. Respite care can help restore some of that normalcy, even for a little bit. In a turbulent time, it can give you some calm. Taking time for yourself for a coffee date with a friend, or even for a nap, can do wonders to relieve your stress, even for a short while. It also can help restore your energy and your drive, so that when you come back to your senior loved one, you are refreshed. Even getting into the after school pickup line again, something that once seemed so mundane, can feel like home again if you have a respite care worker there to look after your loved one while you are gone for a bit.

Healthy Relationships

Respite care also can help maintain or improve your relationship with your senior loved one. Often when you are caring for them non-stop, you are so focused on making sure that they are ok, or that their bills are paid on time, or that they are taking all of their medicines, that it is hard to actually take time out to enjoy them. Sometimes you can even grow to resent your senior loved one for taking you away from the life you had before, and all of your routines.

Having a respite care worker relieve you as the primary caregiver, even for a short time, can help you focus on what is truly important. It can help you focus on your relationship with your loved one, instead of being fixated on their disease, and making sure that everything gets done for them.

Here to Help

If you are looking for some help as you care for your senior loved one, Visiting Angels can help. Visiting Angels serves seniors in the Columbus area. If you think home care would be beneficial for you or your loved one, and are ready to learn more about our customized homecare options, contact us online or at (812) 929-0428.

We offer a complimentary in-home consultation to see what your needs are, and to show you how we can help. We will develop a personalized care plan showing you the specific services your caregiver will provide.

Our goal is to ensure local seniors are well cared for and safe in their homes. Contact us today to find out how we can give you peace of mind.