Why Do Caregivers Seek Out Help?

Caregivers play a crucial role in the care of dementia patients. Providing care for dementia patients results in stress related health impacts to the caregiver. The caregivers go through a journey with the dementia patient and need a strong support system. The best approach to dementia care is for health care providers to provide information to and monitor the caregiver, in addition to the dementia patient, encourage the caregiver to take care of themselves, to seek support, and to work as a team to provide the best care for the dementia patient.

There are options such as assisted living or adult day care. Assisted living is where the elderly live in a home like facility in which they are assisted on doing tasks that might be difficult for an elderly patient. Assisted living is like a nursing home but with less monitoring and more freedom. Adult day care is very similar to day care for children. Eldercare.gov describes adult day care as “designed to provide care and companionship for older adults who need assistance or supervision during the day”. Adult day care is a day service that provides activities for the elderly to do and to surround themselves with their

Many older people experience problems in daily living. For example, people with dementia can include forgetfulness and limited social skills. Specially when a person is living alone it could be very difficult to their ability to perform self-care. Having trouble performing self-care is a common reason why older people seek for a caregiver to assist them and move to assisted living communities, or entering a nursing homes.

When living at home with dementia the individual will have professional help come to them to help with daily tasks such as supervising medication intake, enabling optimum health and safety at home, providing a patient listening ear and friendly face, cooking, housekeeping and general errands, helping to facilitate routine, familiarly and comfort for their loved one at a difficult time. When someone moves from their home into a care home it can be very

Ensuring that the carer has the right and correct information, there are places that can offer other support, financially or emotionally assisting them or sign posting them in the right direction will enable them to seek help when they want it. As an outside carer/professional it is their duty to evaluate the situation and guide appropriately as not all help is welcomed.

There are many community services out there to aid dementia patients these may include community nursing, meals on wheels, homecare, home modification, Alzheimer’s Australia, commonwealth centerlink centres, carers association, counselling, ACAT and respite care.

Enabling caregivers to continue to provide care for their loved one while maintaining their own health is so very important. Caregivers that focus just on their loved one can lead them down an unhealthy road themselves. A caregiver taking advantage of the many tools that are available to offer support can decrease their chance of secondary trauma. The programs offered are endless; Meals on Wheels, National Alzheimer’s Call Center, Caregiver Support Groups, and Respite Care to name a few. Such services can make an incredible difference, but one needs to know how to access

Reach out: Being a senior care provider to someone can be exhausting no matter how much love you have for the person you’re caring for. It’s ok to ask for help and doing so can actually make you better able to continue to be caring and healthy. Seeing a therapist, asking for professional assistance with in-home caregiving, and exploring every option that’s available to you in terms of emotional and medical support is important.

of the problems, they must face. A family member attempting to care for a loved one without training will eventually turn to a Nursing Home that has experienced staff in the care of dementia patients. Although many families feel a sense of guilt having someone else care for a loved one, it is best for all concerned. Dementia patients can be a handful for an experienced caregiver as well as those with no training. These are some of the question that should be ask when a loved

Different families are equipped at different levels to tackle a disease as brutal as Alzheimer's. Some families are able to provide a lot of support through the entire progression of the disease. Other families do not have the time or expertise to provide the level of care that is required to keep their loved one safe if they are still residing at home. Other times, a family caregiver will enter into the caregiving arena with the best of intentions only to find themselves overwhelmed by the amount of support required by a person with Alzheimer's. The good news is that whether your loved one needs a little support or a lot, whether they need full time care or supplemental assistance, Comfort Keepers has Alzheimer's care specialists that are ready to provide the type and level of support your senior loved one requires.

Also take a close look at the long-term care insurance policy of your loved one. There are plan that pay cash to the policyholder to spend on caregiving help monthly. But these policies are very expensive and not very common, so if your loved one has one, take advantage of it.

Each of these senior care services requires its own special touch, and in the case of dementia care, there are a variety of tips that make a caregiver's visits more effective. In addition to helping the diagnosed and their families cope with symptoms, here are some ways caregivers can work toward preserving certain skills and functions:

Anyone facing years or decades of care giving responsibilities may find themselves feeling disheartened, especially if a family member’s condition is expected to continue deteriorating. Without the help and support you need, you become susceptible to a variety of emotional and physical problems including depression and

Sadly, many seniors lack options when it comes to post-hospital or interim home care. Family has often moved away or cannot take off the time it takes to provide quality home care to the extent needed, and a senior spouse simply may not be physically able to provide the needed support. Convalescent homes

There are many different types of roles and responsibilities that come with being a care worker for somebody with dementia. The care worker has to promote dignity for the service user. Respect them and give them independence, their rights and privacy. Again giving them privacy could just be by closing their toilet door so nobody can see them when on the toilet. Focusing on strengths and the things they have the ability to do. For example when lied in bed if they can’t sit up to help themselves out of bed, rather than saying ‘you know you can’t do that on your own, you don’t need any help’ ask them ‘do you want some help? I’ll help you up, you swing your legs out of bed then you can get up’. By focusing on the things they can do you’ll be helping to promote their independence to do something else. Involving their friends