Relationships – Who Becomes the Caregiver for Your Aging Parents?

Selecting the Ideal Caregiver for Your Aging Parents

Nothing in the past can compare to the coveniences that modern technology has given us, there's a price to pay for the convenience and comfort it brings: demanding careers, empty social lives, less quality time with our families and even for ourselves, and lastly, the inability to personally care for our aging parents.

Can You Act as Caregiver for Your Aging Parents?

A caregiver's attention and skills should be almost totally devoted to the elderly patient. Most caregivers that are hired for in-house duties are expected to be able to perform their tasks at any time of the day. They are expected to provide help in all aspects: physical, mental, emotional, and psychological.

A caregiver should be paid well for doing these tasks. If you're going to act as caregiver for your aging parents, you can't very well expect someone to pay you for caring for your OWN parents. So you need to ask the question of yourself, are you ready and willing to be a caregiver for your aging parents?

The Decision to Hire a Caregiver

Even though we're perfectly willing to spend most of our time caring for our aging parents, it can be an impractical decision to make. So we are back to hiring a caregiver. If we can't take care of our own aging parents, we should at least ensure that the person in charge of providing for our parents' needs is someone who's professionally capable of doing this. That's why you can't just hire anyone who's willing to take care of an aging parent or parents. You need to look for someone who has the right attitude, knowledge, and skills to handle the job competently.

Tips on Choosing the Ideal Caregiver for Aging Parents

Parental Participation – Your parents should participate in all parts of the hiring process because they're the ones who'd be most affected if you ended up choosing the wrong person for the job. Ask what your parents what they are looking for in a caregiver and encourage them to ask questions of the applicants.

Recommendations and References – While it may be possible for you to find the perfect candidate among all of the applicants, it's still safer to limit your choices to those who have been recommended by friends, relatives, and agencies, or at the very least, with valid and reliable references. Don't accept references at face value; call the contact number provided and be sure to ask why the applicant left his previous employ, and a rating or description of the applicant's work attitude and performance.

Experience – If they come with references, these should give you an idea of how much experience these applicants have in providing care to elderly patients so be sure to ask detailed questions about their previous jobs. Hiring an experienced caregiver is better than hiring an inexperienced one, even if it means paying higher wages, simply because you'll be able to rest more peacefully at night, knowing that your aging parents are in safe hands.

Skills and Abilities – Have the applicants list all the skills and abilities they possess and that they believe would be useful in caring for elderly patients. If you're looking for a particular skill, now's the time to ask.

Training – Inquire if any of the applicants have received any special training in medical or life-saving techniques and care for the elderly. A properly trained caregiver would know how to handle elderly patients when they're experiencing a bout of depression or when they're suffering from memory problems.

Attitudes – Test each applicant and see who's impatient, easily angered, or manipulative. As your parents will soon spend most of their time in the caregiver's company, there's a risk that they'll be mistreated when you unknowingly hire a bad caregiver. This is a very important issue you must address, especially if your parents are already defenseless or handicapped.

Bonding – While you're looking for someone gentle and quiet speaking, your parents may prefer someone who's feisty and blunt. It's best to leave the choice to your parents as they're the ones who'd be spending most of the time with the caregivers anyway.

Choosing the wrong caregiver can actually contribute to shortening your parents' lives so be careful with your choice, because it's your parents' lives that are at stake!