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What Happens if You Can’t Care for Your Senior Alone? 

April 19, 2019
Lenora Alabi
Often families approach the idea of caring for an aging family member with the belief that it can all be handled by one person. That’s rarely the case and there may come a time when the primary family caregiver worries about what happens next.

It’s Common to Feel Guilty

The first problem to overcome when you realize that caregiving is becoming difficult for you is that you’re going to feel as if you’ve done something wrong or messed up in some way. There’s a lot of guilt involved in feeling as if you need to get help with caregiving duties. This is even truer if your elderly family member is someone who helped to raise you or who was involved in much of your youth.

Other Family Members May Be Able to Help

If you do have other family members who live in the area, too, they may be able to help more than either of you realize. Even if they can’t take over daily caregiving tasks, they may be able to handle certain tasks here and there. Delegating prescription pickups, grocery runs, and other errands that you ordinarily handle frees up a lot of time for you to focus on other tasks and duties.

Agencies that Help the Elderly Are Also an Option

You may not be taking advantage of all the other resources in your area, as well. Sometimes caregivers don’t have the information that they need to be aware of all the different agencies in their area that help the elderly. Even if you think that there aren’t many agencies like this in your area, you might be surprised. Talk with your senior’s doctor and with the health department in your area. Both can be excellent sources of information.

Home Care Providers Offer Specialized Help

Very often caregivers are okay with a lot of what caregiving demands until a senior’s health worsens significantly or the caregiver’s health worsens. For more specialized, hands-on help, home care providers are probably your best option. They know what it means to be care for someone that you love and they want to give you and your senior as much help as possible. They can make so much about caregiving that much easier.

You don’t have to do this alone. Not everyone has family members who can step in and help, which can make the situation feel a little more bleak. Lean on the support that you have and find ways to reach out to other sources of assistance, too. 

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE ARE CONSIDERING HIRING HOMECARE IN STREETERVILLE, IL, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT BRIGHTSTAR CARE CHICAGO. CALL TODAY: 312.382.8888.