Family Caregivers

Family Caregiver Options for Family Caretakers by Senior-Meals.org

Senior Care Help for the Family Caretaker

You may think of it of just helping your Mom, Dad, or both, but you have become a family caregiver. Chances are, it happened gradually, and you currently responsibility has grown to something like a part-time job. This website primarily focuses on feeding our loved ones, but we also want to provide some senior care information that may help you keep up with the challenges you have assumed.

We are family caretakers too. We've been where you are and know first-hand the amount of support and education available to help you care for your loved one is limited. We don't expect to have all the solutions you may need, but we do feel we can steer you in the right direction for almost any situation you are in, or maybe in, as your responsibilities increase.

What is a Family Caregiver?

There's a whole range of services a family caregiver could provide. They can perform highly specialized health care, dedicated, personalized care for the elderly, rehabilitating patients, pre and postnatal care to mother and child, and the very basic human companionship. The first thing that comes to people's mind when talking about caregivers is elderly care. Indeed, a lot of the senior elderly in our society enjoys personal care such as bathing, grooming, meal preparations, feeding, oral care, and most importantly, the companionship of highly efficient caregivers.

However, these professionals are also trained to perform other services. Some professional caregivers are trained to provide medical care to homebound patients. They can operate highly sensitive and complex medical apparatus, administer medications, and see to the patient's personal care. Rehabilitating patients like those recovering from surgical procedures or unexpected strokes can also benefit from the care of a private caregiver. They need someone who will not only see to their personal care but one who will also provide medical assistance and understanding.

Active and dynamic people who are either chair bound, bed-ridden, or held down in any way by an unwanted disease aren't the most agreeable people there is. They need the understanding and constant care of a professional. A person to encourage and gently lead them back to the world of the healthy is essential to fast recovery. New mothers, especially first-time moms, can appreciate having a private caregiver to assist her as she takes on a new role, motherhood.

Having someone handy to care of miscellaneous tasks will give the mother more time to focus on the most important, her baby. People who have dementia and Alzheimer's will be on good hands with a professional caregiver. Not only will they provide the unending understanding and personal care but also the constant companionship that is important to people suffering from memory lapses.

Caring for people with special needs can be overwhelming most of the time. This job requires a lot of patience, hard work, perseverance, and understanding. The patients' behavior is high up on the challenges that a family caregiver faces. Most people are used to taking care of themselves, and allowing a stranger to perform very intimate care is usually perceived as an assault to privacy and causes resentment. Remember that these people aren't the most able, and dependence on others is not always a welcome thought. Often, a caregiver develops a personal and emotional attachment to his/her ward. This makes the suffering of the patient his/her own.

It is not unusual for a patient and the caregiver to take on a close relationship, like a family. This is doubly hard for professional caregivers who have families of their own. The usual dilemma sprouts when somebody in his/her family also needs the care and attention that is being given to the patient.

Conflict on whether to heed his/her personal obligation over professional commitment and duties arose. Caregivers also tend or are sometimes required to spend a lot of time with the patient, especially when an emergency arises. Again, as a person who will always choose to spend time with his/her own family, if given a choice, being taken away from the family is difficult. No amount of planning ahead for vacations and setting up leaves to accommodate special dates like birthdays, anniversaries or recitals will cover for an emergency that hovers between life and death.

Choosing between a dying ward that needs help and a brokenhearted daughter is not easy for anybody, much less for a professional caregiver. Being effective as a caregiver and at the same time be a good wife, husband, or parent is an almost impossible feat. It needs a lot of understanding, acceptance, and love from all people involved.

Our reviews are written only from the viewpoint of a family caretaker who has the responsibility of feeding one or two senior or elderly loved ones. We take into consideration shipping, packaging, storage, reheating, food quality, and price per meal to determine if the meal delivery service is a good value, convenience, and an option to support their family caretaking responsibilities. Advertisers do not influence our reviews.

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