Respite Care Can Help You and Your Senior Loved One Enjoy the Holidays More
With all of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, chances are you’re feeling a bit worn out. If you’re also caring for a senior loved one on top of all of the holiday to-dos, you may be feeling downright ragged. Constantly worrying about their safety and health can take its toll on you. Often, caring for a senior loved one means little or no time for the things you enjoy the most at this time of the year. It can even put a strain on the relationship between you and your senior loved one.
A break to enjoy the things you love about the holidays can help refresh you both physically and mentally. It can benefit both you and your senior loved one. That is where respite care can help. With respite care, you can get a break for an hour, a daytime, or even a weekend to refresh, take care of things you need to do, and come back with a renewed spirit and joy for the season.
What Is Respite Care?
With respite care, a trained professional comes into your senior loved one’s home to watch over them, giving you short-term relief on your caregiving journey. Many home care agencies, including Visiting Angels The Villages, offer such respite care services to help give primary caregivers temporary relief. The services can be for as little as 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. With professionals trained in a number of specialties, from fall presentation to dementia care, respite care truly does give peace of mind when you leave your loved one with a caregiver.
Peace Of Mind To Enjoy Life
When a loved one is sick or needs constant care, everything can seem like it is in shambles. 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 confusing and mixed-up time, it can give you some calm.
Taking time for yourself to enjoy a gingerbread latte with a friend, or even for a short or long winter’s nap can do wonders to relieve your stress, even for a short while. A break to clear your head and think about something else for a while also can help restore your energy and your drive, so that when you come back to your senior loved one, you are refreshed. Even heading out to get last-minute Christmas gifts at the Magnolia Shopping Center, something that once seemed stressful, can give you a sense of normalcy at this time of the year. Having a respite care worker there while you shop, or even go for an evening to the Spanish Springs holiday parade and tree lighting, can do wonders for your mood and spirit.
Improve Relationships
Respite care also can help maintain or improve your relationship with your senior loved one, which is especially important at this time of the year as you look back and reflect on your time together. 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. It can help you enjoy the holidays more together.
Visiting Angels Can Help
If you need assistance with your senior loved one this holiday season, we can help. A Visiting Angels in-home caregiver can help give you a break with respite care or other home care options, while compassionately caring for your senior loved one.
With clients in The Villages, Lady Lake, Fruitland Park, and other communities in Lake and Sumter counties, we are experts at helping seniors maintain meaningful lives. For information on helpers in Lake and Sumter Counties, contact us online or call us at (352) 643-0702. Our main office is located at 367 Fennell Blvd.