You can’t really do much about your stress levels as a caregiver until you learn what is causing you stress. This is going to involve really checking in with yourself and paying close attention to how you feel in any given situation. You may not realize just how many different situations are giving you stress, but you can do something about it.

Figure out Your Triggers
The first step in understanding stress and how it affects you is to figure out what triggers stress for you. It’s different for everyone, although there are some commonalities in how people experience stress. Life itself can be stressful. But there are specific situations and experiences which can cause more stress for you than for someone else. Those are likely your triggers.

External Causes of Stress
External causes of stress are just that. They’re outside of you and your immediate thoughts and actions. External triggers might be moving, grieving, loud noises, or smells that are uncomfortable. There are millions of other external stressors, too. So much of what other people do and how other people interact with you can also be considered external causes of stress.

Internal Causes of Stress
Internal causes of stress are ones that come from inside your mind and body. Fear is a huge internal cause of stress, especially phobias. Feeling sad, mad, or some other type of emotion can be a stress trigger for you depending on how you’ve been taught to deal with those emotions. Feeling stressed can, oddly enough, be a trigger for more stress as you struggle to manage it effectively.

Keep at It
Your goal right now is to really pay attention to what causes stress for you, both from external and internal causes. After you identify them you can start to figure out what to do about them. Having a solution doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to be able to completely eliminate your stress, but it gives you a head start that you didn’t have before. Keep going, because you’re going to keep spotting triggers. The more that you identify the more solutions you can put into place.

Being a caregiver unfortunately means you’re going to have plenty of stressors coming your way. What matters is how you approach them and what you do to help yourself to cope. You may not be fully stress free as a result of this process, but you’ll know what to do the next time stress becomes an issue.

Excerpt: It’s so helpful for you to understand your stress levels and what contributes to them.

 

If you or an aging loved-one are considering a Caregiver in Levelland, TX, please contact the caring staff at Best In-Home Care (806) 412-0723.

As your senior’s caregiver, it falls to you to be one of the first people to notice that she needs some extra help. Even as involved as you are with her care and well-being, you might need a little extra nudge about what issues could point to her needing some extra help. When you know what to look for, you can be better prepared to offer the help your senior needs.

Her Vision Is Worsening

Your elderly family member’s eyes are how she takes in information about the world around her. She can see obstacles, avoid them, and hopefully remain safer. When her vision starts to worsen, though, she’s not able to avoid obstacles and problems as easily. She might even become afraid and stop being as active as she has been.

Her Hearing Is Diminishing
Losing her hearing is just as difficult for your elderly family member as losing her vision can be. She might not realize hearing difficulties as quickly as she notices vision issues, though. The problem with hearing loss, especially if your senior lives alone, is that there are sounds like the doorbell that she might not be able to hear any longer.

Household Tasks Are Piling Up
When tasks and chores are becoming more difficult, it takes both more energy and more time for your senior to handle them. What that means is that she ends up allowing them to pile up a little more than they have in the past. Some tasks may be more labor-intensive for her than others are. You might also notice that she invites you over less often, which means that you don’t see the pile-up happening as readily.

Driving Is Becoming a Concern
You should be concerned about your senior’s ability to drive all the time, but when you’re noticing other issues, like vision problems, that is a reminder to double check how she’s handling driving. If she mentions that she’s not driving as often or that she’s making excuses why you can’t ride with her, these are both red flags.

What is most important about getting extra help for your elderly family member is that you are paying attention to how the changes in her life and in her health impact her overall quality of life. Elderly care providers can offer a wide range of assistance for her and for you, especially in areas you didn’t realize were becoming an issue.

Excerpt: You may not always know exactly what kind of help your senior needs but looking at some of the changes in her life can give you hints.

 

If you or an aging loved-one are considering Elderly Care in Slaton, TX, please contact the caring staff at Best In-Home Care (806) 412-0723.

It can be a stunning realization for you as your senior’s caregiver to notice that she’s stopped bathing or showering. Whatever the reason, you might not get a straight answer when you first ask. You might need to dig a little deeper and see if you can determine what is at play in this situation so you can find a solution that works.

She’s Depressed or Otherwise Upset

Depression takes a lot out of someone and it’s entirely possible that your elderly family member is experiencing some degree of depression. Her life is changing in ways that you may not fully understand and that takes a toll. Another aspect to consider is that some of those changes could have her so upset that refusing to bathe is a way to express some form of control over her life.

Her Senses Are Misleading Her
Many aging adults find that later in life their senses start to change. With cognitive changes, your elderly family member may lose whatever sense of time she had. Other senses, like her sense of smell, might convince her that she’s clean already, so why take a bath? These senses are lying to her, but she doesn’t quite realize that.

She Feels Unsafe
If your elderly family member is unsteady on her feet or if she’s developed a fear of falling in the shower, she’s going to start avoiding the shower. She may try bathing in other ways, but those can be equally unsafe for her. Bathing out of the sink could be just as dangerous if her balance is off. Look for ways to make the bathroom as safe as possible by installing grab bars and including devices such as shower chairs.

She’s Embarrassed
For almost her entire life, your elderly family member has been able to take care of these very personal tasks on her own. Now she’s having to rely on help from you and from other people and that can be incredibly embarrassing. It might also be embarrassing to need help from you, in particular.
Bathing is a vulnerable time for your aging family member. Make the experience as happy and as safe for her as you possibly can. Senior care providers can help you to learn how to do just that and, if your elderly family member is open to the idea, they can help her with bathing. Sometimes you’re too close to the situation for her.

 

 

If you or an aging loved-one are considering Senior Care Tahoka, TX, please contact the caring staff at Best In-Home Care (806) 412-0723.

 

Excerpt: If your senior has sworn off bathing, that’s a big problem in terms of both personal hygiene and overall health.

 

It’s not always as possible to physically be with your elderly family member as you want it to be. Modern families are spread far and wide and that doesn’t become a problem until much later. By finding the right answer for your family, though, you can almost be in both places at once.

Visits Can Be Helpful, Even Shorter Visits

Even if you can’t visit your senior often or for longer than a couple of days, those visits can give you a lot of information. Not only do you get to touch base with your senior, but you can also scope out what she needs and what might be most helpful for her. Having that time to touch base physically can really help you to be more connected to your senior and to her needs.

Make the Most of the Time You Have
When you do visit, make the most of it. This is especially crucial if you can only visit once a year or less. You need to be able to connect, but you also need to make sure that you’re doing everything that needs to be done. If you need to collect paperwork or signatures to make your job as her caregiver easier, then this is the time to do it. Make memories together, but also be sure you’re doing all that you can on an administrative level, too.

Set up a System for Updates
If you don’t have a system in place for updates, they’re going to be haphazard and that doesn’t do you or your elderly family member any good. It can help quite a bit if you hire home care providers with whom you can check in regularly. They can give you succinct information about what they’re noticing and what your senior needs. From there you can make more educated decisions.

Find Ways to Stay in Touch
If you can stay in touch with your elderly family member, it’s important to do so. Talking on the phone, communicating via email, and even using video conferencing are all fantastic ways to stay in touch. You’ll feel better knowing that your elderly family member is right there and she’ll feel more comfortable knowing you want her to stay in touch.

Just because you can’t be there with your senior in person that doesn’t mean that you don’t care about her or want her to have what she needs. Home care providers can help you to make sure that you’re not missing anything important and that your senior is in good hands.

Excerpt: Long-distance caregiving can take as much of a toll on you as caring for your senior in person if you don’t have a plan.

 

If you or an aging loved-one are considering Home Care in Plainview, TX, please contact the caring staff at Best In-Home Care (806) 412-0723.