How to Take a Break When You’re Caring for Older Relatives
Caring for older relatives is a wonderful thing to do, and it can mean a lot of sacrifices when you’re being that compassionate, which then leads to problems with your emotional and mental (and perhaps also physical) health if you’re not careful. This usually happens because while you’re looking after someone else’s needs (perhaps 24 hours a day, seven days a week), you don’t take care of yourself.
The key is to take breaks and make sure you practice self-care to give yourself some time to relax and recharge before you go back to caring for your loved one. But how is that possible when you need to take care of them all the time? It seems like a problem you can’t solve, but the reality is you can, and here are some of the best solutions.
Ask Family for Help
Unless it really is just you and your loved one (and if it is, there are other options for you, so keep reading to find out what they are), you should be able to rely on other family members from time to time to help you out and take their turn looking after your loved one. Although you might want to be the one who does most of the work, or perhaps your circumstances mean you’re the one it makes the most sense to give that role to, if others can step in every now and then, it would give you the chance you need to take some time for yourself.
Ideally, you’ll put this agreement in place right from the start, but even if you don’t, it’s certainly worth exploring - ask for everyone who’s able to to help for a few hours at a time on a regular basis, and you’ll soon have a great support network around you, and you’ll be able to take the time you need to enjoy your own life too. In that way, you’ll be happy and healthy, and everyone gets to help out.
Get Outside Help
If you don’t have any family who can help, either because you’re on your own, no one is willing to pitch in, or they all live a long way away, for example, then you can consider an external agency to help you find the ideal helper for your loved one.
Take a look at care.com reviews to see the kind of thing we mean; you’ll be able to match up with someone who can take over your duties for a while (how long is something you can determine between yourselves) and do whatever it is you need or want to do, whether it’s something like getting the groceries for the week or enjoying a hobby during an evening, for example.
Use Technology
If you can’t take a break in the ways we mentioned above, you can use technology to help you get some respite, and even if it’s not the ideal situation, it’s definitely better than nothing. Depending on the needs of your loved one and what you need to do yourself, you could set up video calls or use monitoring devices to make sure all is well while you’re not around, for example.
Doing this means your loved one also gets a little freedom and independence, and you can get the rest you need to take care of them better.
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