Top 10 Tips for Navigating the Care Giving  Road

1. Take advantage of your friends and family who offer to help or give you time off. Caregivers need to take care of themselves to take the best care of their family members.

2.  Make note of any significant changes you observe and keep an eye on them or make a note on the calendar to track them. IF they last longer than a week get a professional involved.

3. If you suspect your parent is mis-medicating themselves, count the pills in their bottles and come back 3 days later and recount. Buy a pill dispenser if there are any discrepancies.

4.  If your parent has fallen recently, evaluate the safety issues at home, remove throw rugs, tape down or move electric cords, order an alert system, determine if grab bars in the bath and on the toilet would be helpful. If these don’t help, you need to have an evaluation done before they hurt themselves.

5. If there has been significant weight loss recently, know that the gums lose mass with weight loss, so ill-fitting dentures or bridges may be making the problem worse.  Check it out with the dentist if you parent notices more difficulty or pain chewing.

6. Decide to have  a ‘what if’ scenario discussion with your parents so you get an idea about their wishes and vision for care if it is needed.  Doing this with your siblings or other family members could be very enlightening to all and reduce family arguments about ‘what mom wants’.

7. Making big decisions are best before a crisis hits.

8. Use your parent’s ultimate goal (I want to stay in my home for as long as possible) as  yours too, as long as they are safe.  Putting in the supports as they are needed with their goal being your guide will reduce resistance. IF they are no longer safe, you and your family need to step in and help make decisions to reduce their risk.

9. Know that when there are safety issues, its time to step in and get an assessment.

Fires in the kitchen, falls, under or over medication, getting lost while driving, all mean a professional should help you evaluate what next steps might be needed.

10. Never assume a change you are witnessing (with memory or physical and/or emotional functioning) is a ‘normal’ sign of aging. If it interferes with their quality of life, it is worth talking to a professional to see if there might be a solution.