Being a caregiver can often be quite difficult and time consuming. Many adults with full or part time jobs find it even more difficult when they have to balance work and caregiving. We at Carefect Home Care Services understand the difficulty of caregiving for your senior loved one and working at the same time and would like to offer some tips on how to find a balance between the two.
The first thing to keep in mind is that you have to make sure that you take care of yourself first. As a family caregiver and employee, you have to make sure that you remain healthy enough to fulfill all of the tasks required for your two roles. In order to do so, you have to make sure that you are not over exerting yourself. In some cases this means cutting down on overtime hours or finding someone to assist you with your caregiving responsibilities. No matter what you end up doing, you should make sure that you know your limits so that you do not get exhausted over time.
After carefully considering your limitations and health, you should talk to your manager or boss at work. This is a very important thing to do as it is extremely helpful to have them on your side while you are trying to find a balance between work and caregiving. If you work an hourly job, you can ask your manager to be flexible with your hours. If you know that you will have to take your senior loved one to medical appointments at certain times during the week you can ask your manager to work your schedule around that so that you can work at other times. If you have a job where some of your work can be done from home, you can ask your boss to allow you to work from home a few hours a day so that you can spend fewer hours in the office and more hours at home. If you are on friendly terms with your co-workers you can explain your situation to them and ask them to switch shifts with you in case of emergency. Next, you might have to consider using your lunch break to get errands done like scheduling appointments, picking up prescriptions, or light grocery shopping. As long as you are still finding a way to eat your lunch, this can be a great way to help you maximize your time.
While you are at work, you might want to consider hiring private care to help you take care of your senior loved. Knowing that someone is taking care of your loved one means that you will not have to leave work and check on them unless there is a serious emergency. Homecare services such as the services that we offer at Carefect Home Care Services can support you by providing your loved one with personal care assistance such as bathing and using the restroom, daily companionship activities like watching TV or reading, and even meal preparation so that you will know that your loved one is eating nutritious meals while you are out of the house. Homecare services can also help with light housekeeping and errands such as picking up the mail or prescriptions and doing light shopping for your senior loved one. These services can be a huge help to family caregivers as it keeps them from having to spend time on housework when they get home from work and can help them save time on doing errands for their senior loved ones if they cannot find the time to do them during their lunch break.
The last thing to consider is to make sure that you have a good network of friends, relatives, or neighbors that can help in case of emergency. Having a spouse or an older child that can help you take care of your parent if something comes up can be a huge help so that you are not constantly late to work because you were trying to take your loved one to a doctor’s appointment or other event. If you have close friends or neighbors who are willing to help, you can offer to help them with something that they need assistance with when you get a chance in exchange for having them help you with your loved one if something comes up. Knowing that there are others who can help is very reassuring for family caregivers as it can keep them calm if something comes up with work or their loved one and they are unable to do everything on their own. Following all of these tips will help family caregivers to find balance between their work life and their caregiving responsibilities.
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