Managing the Transition to In-Home Care

After several discussions with your family, you’ve reluctantly agreed to start professional home care services. Once you’ve found the right provider, it will be time for you all to devise a caregiving strategy that addresses your present and future needs. Managing the transition to in-home care can be challenging. Using the following tips will help ensure the level of care provided continues to support your active lifestyle so you can age in place with dignity and a renewed sense of independence. 

Determine What Services Are Needed

Based on your initial care assessment, determine what’s lacking or getting overlooked in your current daily routine. Are you having trouble performing activities of daily living (ADLs), such as bathing, dressing, meal preparation, or getting around? Have you recently been diagnosed with any medical condition that may eventually require specialized care, for instance, dementia or cancer?

Once you and your family have assessed your needs, meet with your caregiver(s) to ensure they have the required training and experience. If you think you may need additional services as your condition worsens – for instance, hospice care or 24-hour care – anticipating those needs together will help ensure a smoother transition once that time comes.

Communicate Openly and Often

Keeping with the last point, communication is always key when working with a home care provider. Don’t hesitate to ask your caregiver for periodic updates on your condition and changing needs. Once you’ve discussed your health status, be sure to share what you’ve learned with other family members.

If the current caregiver is failing to adequately meet your needs – or your personalities don’t click – discuss the situation with a supervisor so that they can find a suitable replacement. Most reputable home care agencies will provide periodic updates and offer caregiving advice – for example, ways to modify your home to create a safer and more comfortable living environment.

Form a Caregiving Team

When devising a home care game plan, informal caregivers often try and do everything themselves or rely too much on trained professionals. Neither approach is ideal when your health and well-being weigh in the balance.

Instead, form a caregiving team comprised of trusted family members, community volunteers, and friends. After choosing a team leader, take an inventory of all the resources at your disposal and assign tasks based on each member’s time and talents.

In addition to your “personal assistant” and loved ones, recruit specialists like doctors, nurses, physical, speech, and occupational therapists, dieticians, and pharmacists to fill any remaining caregiving gaps.

Eldercare specialists like elder law attorneys, benefits counselors, financial advisors, and certified public accountants can also be key additions to your care team. A geriatric care manager can offer invaluable insight for organizing, monitoring, and facilitating your care as needs become more complex.

Bonus Tip: How to Hire the Right Home Care Provider

Unless you’ve used one before, finding a reputable home care provider can sometimes feel like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Taking these steps will help ensure a smoother transition in the end:

• Seek referrals from friends, coworkers, neighbors, and other trusted sources.
• Research the provider’s reputation via online reviews, along with testimonials from clients and past employees.
• Determine if they offer all the services you need, including any you might need in the future.
• Find out how they communicate with clients and their families and if they have a backup plan if normal communication channels are down.
• Ask if you can conduct a screening interview with the caregiver before “signing on the dotted line.”

Flexible In-Home Senior Care for Families in Indianapolis, IN

When you need a reliable in-home care provider in the Greater Indianapolis area, look no further than Senior1Care. As your family-trusted home care source, our dedicated and compassionate professionals deliver exceptional care to individuals seeking dependable ways to maintain their independent lifestyles. While proudly serving clients and their families since 2006, our unique scope of services ranges from personal care and household services to dementia care, family consultation, and geriatric care counseling.

We are a local, family-owned, and operated home care company with services that can be uniquely tailored to meet each client’s needs. To learn more about Senior1Care or schedule an assessment for a senior in Indianapolis, Fishers, Carmel, Zionsville, or Noblesville today, please visit us by clicking here now.