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Hiring A Caregiver Essay

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The Caregiver: Benefits of Hiring a Caregiver

Nearly 15 million American seniors require at least some caregiver support and that number is set to double over the next couple of decades. Presently, over 70 percent of seniors over 65 years of age have at least a partial disability. The majority of senior caregivers are family members, however, in the last few decades, the number of seniors receiving professional caregiving services have more than tripled.

If your senior loved one wants to remain in their home and "age in place", but they cannot realistically function safely by themselves in their home environment, you have probably wondered about the options for you and your loved one. Nursing homes provide the support, but they come with a heavy financial and emotional cost. Family caregiving is another option, but not every family has the time, resources, or expertise to successfully care for a loved one, especially when the care starts turning into a full-time occupation. Another option is the professional in-home caregiver.

Even in a family member provides most of the support, there are benefits to hiring a caregiver. Studies show that family members who provide …show more content…

In fact, Comfort Keepers believes in interactive caregiving. This means that while their service providers can perform the tasks alone if needed, the care model calls for interaction between the senior, the family, and the professional caregiver. Interactive caregiving not only makes the work go by faster, but it builds the social bonds needed to build emotional and social health, establishes rapport between the senior and the caregiver, and helps incorporate many essential physical, cognitive, and emotional skills into the senior's day. This is part of the reason interactive in home caregiving has been shown to reduce the time it takes for seniors to recover from illnesses and injuries. Further, these seniors have less recurring illness once they do

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