It is absolutely essential that you take care of yourself first and foremost when you’re a caregiver. Many people who take on this role, and this responsibility, believe that they come second and that the elderly individual comes first. While it’s important to take care of them to the best of your ability, if you don’t take care of yourself, then you’re likely to become burned out, ineffective, and unable to deliver everything that the patient requires.
Here are five things that you can do in order to take care of yourself when you’re a home care provider for an elderly patient.
- Exercise. You may think that running from one place to the next, getting to the elderly individual’s home after work, helping them make something to eat and doing light cleaning for them is exercise, but it’s not. You should make sure that set aside at least 15 minutes every day to get the right amount of exercise. The right amount of exercise is that which gets your heart rate elevated.
- Eat right. When you’re constantly on the run, you might have a tendency to eat poorly. Grabbing fast food for one meal is fine, but that could lead to doing it time and time again. Soon you may be eating out almost every single day and that is going to lead to poor nutrition. Bring along fruit for a snack and be sure to eat healthy, home cooked meals as often as possible.
- Have some ‘me’ time. Being a home care provider means that you’re responsible for someone else’s welfare. That doesn’t mean you need to give up on your own care, though. Take some ‘me’ time out of every day to make sure that you are doing the things that you enjoy. That could be going out with friends in the evening once a week, playing a sport on the weekend, or anything else.
- Speak to others about the caregiving process. When you connect with others who have also been caregivers, or someone who is a caregiver like yourself, it helps to alleviate some of the stress and anxiety that you may feel. There are groups that you can find online to offer the support you need.
- Be willing to hire help. If you’re a family caregiver, and it’s becoming too much for you, talk to your loved one about hiring a professional home care provider. It’s better to have the right kind of support for your loved one than to push yourself too hard and let the quality of care suffer in the end.
If you or an aging loved one needs caregivers in the Carmichael, CA area, remember Senior Home Care Services for all services needed. Call us at (916) 514-7006 for more information.
Owner at A Better Living Home Care
I started A Better Living Home Care Agency after seeing the impersonal and inconsistent service of large home care companies and franchises in the Greater Sacramento Area. I know, because I once worked for one. I left to put the “personal” back into home care.
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