When to Adjust Your Loved One’s Home Care Assistance Plan
When your loved one in Longmont, CO is showing signs of difficulty even after hiring professional home care assistance services, it might be time to adjust their care plan
We kindly ask you to picture the following scenario: your senior parent or relative is having an increasingly difficult time maintaining their preferred lifestyle independently. They ask you to help them find professional home care assistance and you say yes, of course. So, the two of you hire a trustworthy care company and a loving caregiver starts providing care for your loved one. Your loved one’s comfort, happiness, and quality of life improve almost instantaneously. Fantastic!
However, after some time, you find that they seem to be struggling again, even though professional care services are still being provided. What happened?
Simply put, so much can change within a few months, especially for aging adults. As many seniors often start having new, shifting difficulties, it’s important to evaluate your loved one’s care services regularly – and update those services should there be a need. Visiting Angels of Boulder County can help you figure out when it’s time to adjust your loved one’s care plan so it fits their ever-changing needs.
Evaluating Your Loved One’s Home Care Assistance
Allow yourself to plan ahead when it comes to evaluating and reviewing your loved one’s care. Sit down with Mom or Dad and their caregiver every six months and have an in-depth conversation about their care plan. For seniors struggling with cognitive conditions like Alzheimer’s, frequent conversations may be more appropriate.
Consider asking some of these questions when evaluating your loved one’s care plan together with them and their caregiver:
- Are there visible changes in your loved one’s well-being noticed by you, your loved one, or their care provider?
- Are there new, added difficulties in terms of strength and mobility?
- Is your loved one comfortable enough (or as comfortable as possible) with the level of provided home care assistance?
- Is your loved one’s care schedule addressing all their current care needs?
- Are there some new or specific areas of care your loved one might need additional help with?
Bear in mind that a seasoned, qualified caregiver will know how to recognize these issues as they appear. At Visiting Angels of Boulder County, we train our caregivers to closely observe any changes in clients’ health or behavior and bring them to the attention of both clients and family members.
Updating Your Loved One’s Care Plan
Depending on your agency, getting additional home care assistance for your loved one may be as easy as a phone call or an in-person consultation. At Visiting Angels, for instance, our franchised offices are always willing to review or update our care plans in order to meet clients’ ever-changing needs.
“Great home care means rising to the occasion,” says Visiting Angels President and CEO, Larry Meigs. “That’s especially true when clients’ develop new challenges or difficulties.”
The fact is that new needs, new challenges, and new phases are a natural part of aging. Because of this, it is important that your loved one can adapt to those changes and that your family is there to help them maintain a high quality of life throughout their golden years.
Visiting Angels of Boulder County is a leading provider of non-medical private home care assistance for seniors. To learn more about the in-home assisted living services provided by our staff of compassionate caregivers, please call our Longmont office at (303) 828-2664 or contact us for more information.
Visiting Angels proudly serves Allenspark, Boulder, Eldorado Springs, Erie, Hygiene, Lafayette, Longmont, Louisville, Lyons, Nederland, Niwot, Pinecliff, Ward, and the surrounding areas of Boulder County, CO.