Why Choose Home Healthcare?

Why Choose Home Healthcare?

"When the time comes that a loved one needs help at home, the process of convincing him or her to accept help can be difficult. Most of us value our independence, and having someone come into one's home to assist with such intimate activities as bathing and dressing can be a problem.

But, as our population lives longer, and our aging parents have more impairments with aging, the need for workers who can enable elders to stay in their homes increases. Most elders, if asked, would say that they prefer to stay at home, rather than move to a facility as they age. How do we keep them safe at home, when we must rely on others to provide help with activities of daily living?" (agingcare.com)

When considering the next step in the healthcare process for the elderly or disabled, in-home healthcare is an excellent option. Comfort of Home Healthcare is a company that is dedicated to providing peace of mind for all clients and their families. Comfort of Home holds their home care services to the highest standard in all aspects of business and care. Their name stands for quality and integrity that is preserved above all else. If you are considering a home healthcare agency for your loved one, remember Comfort of Home Healthcare!

The article below gives the top 10 reasons for choosing home health care for your loved one, when it is necessary to make that decision.

Top 10 Reasons for Choosing Home Healthcare

• Home care is delivered at home. When we are not feeling well, most of us ask to be at home. We enjoy the sanctity of our residences and the joy of being with our loved ones. When our loved ones are ill we try to get them home and out of the hospital as soon as possible.
• Home care keeps families together. This is particularly important in times of illness. The ties of responsibility and caring can be severed by hospitalization.
• Home care prevents or postpones institutionalization.
• Home care promotes healing. There is scientific evidence that many patients heal faster at home.
• Home care is safe. Many risks, such as infection, are eliminated or minimized when care is given at home.
• Home care allows for the maximum amount of freedom for the individual. Patients at home remain as engaged with their usual daily activities as their health permits.
• Home care promotes continuity. The patient's own physician continues to oversee his or her care.
• Home care is personalized and tailored to the needs of each individual. Patients receive one-on-one care and attention.
• Home care is less expensive than other forms of care, especially lengthy inpatient hospitalization.
• Home care is the form of care preferred by the American public.
• Home care can prevent re-hospitalization and decrease the need for urgent care.

The Sandwich Generation

The Sandwich Generation
Caring for Your Children as You Care for Your Aging Parent

Many families today are put in a position to care for both their growing children and their aging parent at the same time. Their combined role as both parent and caregiver can bring great stress, exhaustion, and tension into a family environment. For many people it is a priority that their aging parent stay in the comfort of their own home, so it is important that the caregiver has a balanced view of their new role; which will help them thrive in various circumstances.

It is possible to raise your kids and provide care and comfort for an aging parent, but you can't do it alone without completely overwhelming yourself and your family.

The good news is that this task does not have to be taken on alone and there is help available to those willing to take it! The following articles give some helpful tips about how to effectively juggle child-care and parent-care. There are specific things you need to remember during this time when addressing your child's needs, your aging parent's needs, and your own needs. Every person is affected uniquely by the new family dynamic, and so every person needs to be taken care of differently.

From experience we know that there will be challenges along the way, but this time will be rewarding for every family member involved.

Articles from youragingparent.com: 

Caring for Your Children as You Care for Your Aging Parent

Caring for Your Children
as You Care for Your Aging Parent

     If you’re a member of the “sandwich generation,” if you’re taking care of your aging parent as well as your children, it’s hard to shake the feeling that if you focus on one generation you’re losing sight of the needs of the other.

     It can help to remember – to realize – that your taking care of your parent is good for your children, too. How so?

     You’re right that your kids also make a sacrifice because you can’t be around as much as the they would like you to be and, most likely, they have to do more – become more responsible – because you can’t be there. (Maybe they have to make their own lunch to take to school. Or you can’t be a chaperone at some school event even though you were able to do that a year or so ago.)

     Yes, in some ways a child is being deprived of what a parent might be able to give if he or she didn’t have caregiving obligations to an older family member (or to a spouse who is ill or to a child with special needs) but – from another perspective –Mom or Dad is giving something to that child or those children that he or she otherwise couldn’t give. We mean a front-row view of love in action without any possibility of mistaking the unchangeable fact that true love demands service and sacrifice.

     Still . . . it can be a lot to put on little shoulders. All they may see at first glance is that Mom or Dad isn’t there (or is there but is exhausted from caregiving and holding down a job) and they miss not just what that parent does for them (nice meals, rides to practice and so on) but also that person himself or herself. They miss time spent together. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions if you’re taking care of an aging parent and your children:

     --Talk about caregiving at a time when neither you nor your child are tired and emotions are not running high.

     --Do something special with each child, one-on one.

     --Explain what it’s like to be a care-receiver, how it can be hard to accept help. Talk about why you’re taking care of Grandpa or Grandma and explain – in an age-appropriate way –what his or condition is.

     --Work at establishing a link between your children and your parent. Let them have some time together.

     --Remember children can, in small ways, help with caregiving, too.

     --Teach what respectful care means and explain the difference between “dignity” and “dignified.” Yes, at times, a situation may be less than “dignified” but a person must be treated with dignity.

     --Remember to thank the child for making sacrifices and for helping you help your mother or father.

The Sandwich Generation

The Sandwich Generation

     The "sandwich generation" is a good description. There's pressure from both sides and sometimes it gets messy in the middle. That's what it can feel like if you're taking care of not only your children but your aging parent as well.

     Add in a spouse and a job and it's no wonder it often seems a twenty-four-hour day and seven-day week just aren't enough for all you have to do.

     Then, too, from the time all of us were little we were taught there is a right way and a wrong way to accomplish a task. To meet—and overcome— challenge. Maybe your parent took care of Grandma or Grandpa. Your spouse took care of your mother- or father-in-law. Your friends or co-workers seem to be able to handle their situations. But you . . . .

     When you realize, when it becomes so painfully obvious, you can't do all the things you're supposed to do—all the things other people have done or are doing—you feel so inadequate. So guilty.

     You think you're letting everyone down. If you just worked a little harder. Slept a little less. Sacrificed a little more. Then somehow . . . .

     If you find yourself in that situation, or feel yourself sinking into it, these suggestions might help:

     ● Remember there is no single "right" way to do this. Trying to exactly mimic what another person has done probably isn't going to work. Each case is unique because the personalities and problems in each case are unique.

     ● If you don't take care of yourself—take time to eat, sleep, catch your breath and pray—you will burn out quickly and be of little use to anyone, including yourself. The situation in which you find yourself is not a sprint, it's a marathon. Yes, someday it will end but that may be a long, long time from now. In the meantime, if you do not pace yourself, sometimes even pamper yourself, you won't be able to keep going. That's not because you're weak, it's because you're human.

     ● The big picture can look and feel overwhelming. Sometimes it helps to break it down into the many tiny pieces that make up the whole. What you have to do for your parent. Your children. Your spouse. Your job. Yourself. The lists may be long but somehow no single item is overpowering.

     ● Prioritize your tasks. Making those lists helps. Obviously, getting Mom to her doctor's appointment is more important than vacuuming her apartment.

     ● Give away some of the low-priority duties. Someone else can be hired to do the apartment cleaning. Someone else—the bakery department at the local grocery store—can supply the brownies you're supposed to send to the next Cub Scout den meeting.

     ● Get support for yourself. Groups for caregivers and organizations that focus on your parent's particular illness or condition can help you deal with what you are facing. Doctors, social workers and the Area Agency on Aging can give you local contacts.

     ● Write it down. Dates and schedules and all that information from doctors, therapists, pharmacists, teachers, coaches, your boss, your spouse, your kids . . . . There's no way a person can remember all the things you need to remember.

     It may seem the day is completely packed but if you jot down your own "to do" list, you may discover there's half an hour free here. Twenty minutes there. A little oasis like that gives you something to look forward to. A short break to at least partially recharge your batteries before you have to go, go, go again.

Happy 2013

Happy New Year!
from your family at Comfort of Home Healthcare

It is easy to get overwhelmed with everything life throws your way. The demands and expectations of work, family, relationships, and finances can begin to dictate your happiness. At Comfort of Home Healthcare we know that life can take its toll on anyone, and caregiving for a loved one adds new duties to your already full list. Let us help you during this New Year by allowing our trained staff to give your family a fresh start! 

Whether you are caring for a loved one or not, life is still full of unexpected challenges and experiences. This new year lets remember to rise above the little things. Don't get stuck in your bubble of problems; maybe it is time to shift your focus from yourself to others. Your happiness can't be determined by your circumstances because people will eventually always fail you and rough times will undoubtedly come. The only thing you can change is your reaction to what comes your way.

"You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you."

It is the easiest to get overwhelmed when we look at everything at once. Take time to focus on one thing at a time, and you might feel a little less overwhelmed. It is all about the way you look at your circumstances; you can choose to react positively or let every little thing drag you down. 

Maybe this new year all that we all need is a change of perspective.