Introducing in-home care can life changing, for the person receiving the care and the family members who support them. Over the past 12 months we have had the privilege of helping many families find in-home care and we wanted to share one of these stories with you.
Mary’s 80-year-old mother has a parathyroid problem and following a stint in hospital and increasing delirium, Mary became increasingly concerned about her mother’s ability to remain at home alone. As an only child the burden of these worries loomed large.
Initially Mary moved her mother into her home but this did not work out and Mary knew the best thing for her mother, and their relationship, was for her mother to be in her own home with a care worker. Her mother was adamant about living independently.
Mary discussed the issue with the hospital social worker who referred her to a Care Team from Careseekers. The Care Team provided Mary with three suitable candidates for the job. Mary interviewed all three and chose the one who she thought would be the best fit for the job.
Mary’s mother was initially annoyed at the thought of a live in care worker and it became a source of conflict between the two. Mary was also worried about how it would go. Now she regards getting in-home help as the best thing she did ‘Now I see it as another pair of hands to assist me with my mother, I am very happy and it was a very good choice.’
Mary’s tip to anyone looking to engage an in-home care worker is to make sure the care worker gets along with your family. ‘Treat the carer as part of the family. I lost my sister, so I am an only child, when my mother was in hospital recovering from knee surgery, her care worker, Agnes, made it much easier for me. She was another pair of hands, if I arrived at the hospital in the afternoon and she had been there in the morning, I let her go and have some time by herself. I let her have a life of her own, she is not a servant. It has been a very positive experience for us.’
What is important is that the care had to be affordable, it had to be delivered at the times the person needed it, and there had to be a personality fit between the care worker and person being cared for (and their family).
Could a live-in care worker be the answer for your family? If the following is true for your family you can definitely start thinking about live-in options.
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