When you are the primary caregiver for a person with a severe chronic health condition or other special health care needs, the burden of care can become overwhelming. Caregivers rarely get a break, which can cause stress and other health problems for the individual providing care. It’s important to take time to do other essential activities and to connect with other caregivers, and respite care is a wonderful way to do just that. If you are new to the idea of respite care, it’s important to understand the options available to you.
Personal Care
Personal care respite services involve helping the client with personal care needs, ranging from early stage to late stage care. This type of respite care can include some very basic personal hygiene needs, like helping the client bathe, using the toilet, and getting dressed, as well as some other services that ensure higher quality of life, like cooking, feeding, memory care, and more. Based on the needs of each individual, personal care can also offer specialised mind and body exercises, specialised social activities, and assistance with communication.
Housecleaning and Home Maintenance Services
A person with a chronic illness, memory loss, or other special health care needs may not be able to take care of their own with house cleaning or home maintenance. When caring for an individual’s basic physical and emotional needs, it can seem impossible to care for the person’s home as well. Sometimes a caregiver also needs a helping hand to accomplish some of these less personal tasks. This might include, but is not limited to, doing laundry, yard maintenance, and general cleaning.
Skilled Nursing
Skilled nursing respite care services include assistance with some of the client’s more advanced medical needs. This might include relatively simple tasks like medication management and vital signs review, and can also include more extreme levels of medical care, like catheter and colostomy care. For end of life and palliative care, in-home respite care services may be the best option for some families.
Understanding the options for in-home respite care can help you to reduce the burden of being a caregiver for an elderly person or a person with special health care needs. To learn more about the options for in-home respite care, call us at Dementia Care at 1300 760 110 or check out our website.