A good in-home caregiver is worth his weight in gold. Rather than going to a nursing home or assisted living facility, he can help a senior with cognitive or physical issues age in place in the house he or she loves. He gives his client companionship and family members comfort of mind.
Setting clear expectations from the start is essential, but if things go off track, you can work them out. Here are some frequent challenges that in-home caregivers face and how to deal with them.
- Habit Of Arriving Late
We’ve all been delayed in traffic, slept through the alarm, or forgotten our keys as we raced out the door. As a result, a late start now and again is acceptable. If, on the other hand, your caregiver is routinely late — especially if you require her to arrive before you leave for work — it’s time to question if she’s actually committed to the job.
“If she’s a really esteemed caretaker, I would be a little more lenient of this and sit down and tell her that she is doing a wonderful job, but it’s unsafe for the senior to be left home alone for even 15 minutes, so she needs to leave a few minutes earlier each morning,” says Henry Thomas, a dementia care expert in Florida.
Wanda Robert, a geriatric care manager in Salt Lake City, Utah: Your Guide to Hiring and Managing Caregivers at Home,” advocates incorporating punctuality standards in a written contract with the caregiver.
“Pen it down instead of telling her directly so that there is no misunderstanding left,” she advises.
- Spends Most Of Time On The Phone
If you were scrolling through Instagram during a crucial work meeting, your boss would be furious, so it’s normal to ask your home aide to put down the phone while caring for your loved one.
“Dad truly needs your whole attention,” you can explain, “so please limit non-urgent phone calls to when he’s resting.” This can be tough to monitor if you live in a different town or state, according to Henry Thomas, who suggests dropping in unannounced when you have the opportunity to observe if the assistant is following the regulations.
- Aide Gets Frustrated With Difficult Behavior
If your loved one has dementia, the behavior of your loved one may change, posing a challenge to the home aide: A dementia patient may become agitated, refuse to eat, refuse to bathe, or accuse the aide of stealing.
This is an excellent opportunity to talk to a geriatric care manager to see whether you need to move to a higher level of care or employ a new helper with more dementia experience (and a more patient demeanor). If you wish to keep the same caregiver, meet with her one-on-one to talk about the issues and see if she’s ready to go through more training.
“Call the Alzheimer’s Association or look for a dementia training specialist online and offer to pay for a training session so she may learn new strategies,” Henry Thomas suggests.
- Not Providing The Stimulation You Want
You might imagine your mother’s caretaker taking her on walks, playing Scrabble with her, and providing her with endless hours of interesting conversation and attention. In reality, they may be watching the Home Shopping Network together for hours every day. Wanda Robert suggests that it could just be a case of misunderstandings.
Her solution: Make a plan of care that specifies which chores you anticipate the assistant to complete each day. To boost memory, go for a 20-minute walk three times a week; bring mum to a library book lecture once a week; listen to music and go through photo albums every afternoon.
“The plan of care is a fluid document that can be altered as needed,” Wanda Robert adds, “but it provides the caregiver with a clear guideline of what to expect.”
- Improper Communication
You want to know how your loved one is doing on a daily basis, whether you live down the street or across the nation, and if there are any changes in physical or mental state or any difficulties that need to be handled. But, at the end of the day, your caregiver could simply be too tired to tell you. As a result, make it simple for her.
“Once the shift is over, I ask every caregiver to message me a verdict about any concerns that arose that day, or a list of the tasks they did on that day,” Henry Thomas explains. “And I always make her feel authorized by replying to her with a thank you.”
Frequent communication should be part of your plan of care, according to Wanda Robert, and if you live too far away to check in on a regular basis, consider hiring a geriatric care manager to keep track of things and report back to you.
So, these are the common 5 typical concerns with in-home caregivers and how to deal with them politely. There may be other concerns also which bother you or your loved one, you can share those with Senior care online and we will be more than happy to listen to you!
