Respite care provides a break for you when caring for your aging loved one. It gives you a short-term time frame where someone else steps in to provide care for your loved one. It can be for a few hours, days or weeks.

Why Hire a Respite Caregiver

You may hire someone to help with respite care for a few reasons, whether it be you are feeling sick, want to go on a vacation, celebrate religious holidays, regular holidays, birthdays or simply just needing a break to get some time to unwind and reset.

There are emotional as well as physical demands that go into caregiving where respite care comes into play to save the day.

Who to Hire as a Respite Caregiver

Whoever does the respite care for your loved one should be a trusted and experienced individual. Whether that person is another caregiver or home health aide, a family member, friend, or volunteer. Working with an agency may be your best bet since agencies have already screened candidates for roles like this and can handle things like scheduling and payroll.

They could interview you and your loved one about your needs beforehand.  This would at least give you fewer things to worry about and take off your plate. No matter who you choose, make sure this person is properly trained as well as willing and happy to fill in this part-time role for you and your loved one.

Bonus Benefits of Respite Care

Another positive thing about respite care is it gives your loved one a change from their everyday routine to see a fresh friendly face and to do different things. A change in scenery and a change of pace in someone’s lifestyle can be beneficial by switching things up a bit.

Respite care services include lots of help for things like going shopping, taking them to and from medical and regular appointments, playing cards, watching television, working on crafts or puzzles, taking them to an exercise class, cooking, cleaning, getting them dressed, and assisting with writing and reading correspondence to them.

Along with helping with daily activities, the individual in respite care gives your loved one someone else to talk to, learn from, and get to know.

As your loved one’s primary caregiver, you want to avoid getting burnt out because you won’t be able to properly care for and assist your loved one. Without proper rest and lots of stress, it’s easy to mess up and make a mistake that could be harmful to your loved one in the long run. We all need mental and physical breaks from time to time.

Caring Home Care has a nurse registry that can match your loved one based on specific needs for respite care while allowing you to have peace of mind knowing they are in trusted hands. Click here to learn more today.