Do You Actually Want to Be Your Parent’s Caregiver As They Cope with Cancer?
Being a family caregiver for an elderly adult who is living with cancer can be a unique opportunity to spend quality time with them, show your love and appreciation, and help them to live the highest quality of life possible as they battle with this disease. For many people, this is a meaningful and fulfilling experience that they take on willingly and even with enthusiasm.
Elderly Care Scotch Plains NJ – Do You Actually Want to Be Your Parent’s Caregiver As They Cope with Cancer?
This, however, is not always the case. If you find yourself feeling as though you have been pushed into the role of being a family caregiver or that you have no choice in being a caregiver for a senior with cancer, you may feel overwhelmed, pressured, burdened, and even resentful. You might fear that you don’t have what it takes to give your elder exactly what they need on a regular basis, or that other important things in your life would need to be sacrificed in order to be a proper caregiver.
Feeling this way can be uncomfortable, but it is important to be honest with yourself and with your parents, and cope with these feelings in effective ways so that you can make sure that you are ready to move forward in a way that is right for both of you.
Use these tips to help you cope if you find yourself in a caregiver role that you do not want or feel that you cannot handle:
Take some time to think about why you don’t want to take on this role and what it will mean for your life. You might find that you are holding on to emotions that could be released simply through conversations with your parents, or that there are other obstacles and challenges that you could address through plans and arrangements with other members of the care team. This allows you to resolve these problems and feel more confident.
Give yourself permission to not be excited about this role. Being a family caregiver can be extremely stressful and challenging, and it is perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed and even upset that it is you who must take on this role. Giving yourself permission to feel this way, but committing to fulfilling these needs in the best way possible, can ease your stress and help you to focus your energy and attention more effectively.
Be honest with yourself and your parent about the limitations that you have. These can be physical limitations, such as not being able to lift your parent, emotional limitations, such as not being willing to take on certain sensitive tasks or needing someone else to handle issues such as planning for end of life transition and, or time limitations, such as not being able to be with your elderly parent every day.
Build a care team to help you with these tasks. This care team can include an elderly care provider, friends and family, and others who are willing to step in and take on tasks so that you do not feel overwhelmed by this role, but can still feel confident knowing that your parent has what they need.
If you have been looking for an effective and meaningful way to meet your parent’s care needs and support a high quality of life for them as they age in place, starting elderly care for them may be the ideal solution. An elderly home care services provider can be there with your parent on a schedule that is right for their needs as well as the care efforts that you give them on a regular basis.
This allows you to evaluate your own limitations and abilities and design a care routine that will help them to live the highest quality of life possible throughout their later years. Through a set of highly personalized services, this care provider can help your parent to maintain as much independence as possible while also encouraging fulfilment, activity, and efficient management of their individual challenges and needs. Safe and reliable transportation, assistance with personal care needs, mobility support, and companionship are only a few of these services available.
If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring professional Elderly Care Services in Scotch Plains NJ, please talk to the caring staff at Generations Home Health Care today. Providing Home Care in Somerset, Essex, Union, Morris and Hunterdon Counties. Call us today at (908) 290-0691 or (973) 241-4534.
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