HOME NURSING CARE SERVICES

1. HOME NURSING CARE SERVICES #10, SB Temple Rd, Kalyan Nagar, Halbarga, Brhampur, Kalaburagi, Karnataka 585103 097385 00669 Home Nursing Services Elder Care at Home - Is it a Good Option? Providing elder care at home often seems like the best option for aging family members. The trick to making aging at home successful is to anticipate changes before they happen, and to ask the "what if" questions early. Eric and Sue didn't. What they did do was drive over to Eric's 83 year-old mother's house every weekend to take care of the lawn, drive her wherever she needed to go, and take her out to lunch. Mom had given up driving voluntarily, for which Eric and Sue were deeply grateful. Other than a bit of arthritis and a tendency to repeat herself a bit, Mom seemed to be doing pretty well. So, given how easy she was to get along with, and given how much she loved her home of 40+ years, Eric and Sue promised to "do everything" to keep her in her own home. Fast forward five years. Mom is now 88 years old. She took a tumble 18 months ago and broke her ankle. Since then she has been terrified of falling again. She walks with a cane, and her anxiety makes her very unsteady. Her memory is much worse. She can't be depended on to remember her medications. It's questionable how often she's bathing. Arthritis now makes it hard for her to cook, which in truth may be a blessing, so Sue fixes frozen meals for Mom's microwave. Eric and Sue now take turns "dropping by" on the way home from work each evening, just to check. They find themselves scheduling office meetings around Mom's doctor visits and other needs. They worry that she might open the door to a stranger. They haven't been out of town together for over a year. They're feeling more than a little "stretched" by elder care. One accident or one serious illness and Mom's little house of cards will crumble. If Mom is going to stay safely at home, she will have to accept some outside help. Eric and Sue haven't broached the subject yet, but they know they have to do it soon because they simply can't do it all any more. Many families say they are willing to do "whatever it takes" to keep an elder at home. Most often they make this decision while caregiving is in its early stages. As time goes by and demands on their strength and time increase, caregivers find themselves stretched to the breaking point - often before they see it coming.

2. Very few family members can leave jobs and family responsibilities to manage a senior's care at home full time. Sooner or later, almost everyone will have to turn to outside help to make home care viable. If a senior is both able to afford and willing to accept non-family care, then staying at home can be a very successful option. If home care is not affordable, or if an elder is not going to be willing to consider having help from someone other than family, then remaining at home will probably not be a good choice for long term senior care. The trick to successful elder care at home is for everyone, senior and family, to talk frankly about both the financial and the personal facts openly and honestly long before the need is obvious. If a senior is firm that no outsider will ever be accepted into his or her home, it's better to know early that professional home care assistance will be a fight. If the available funds won't stretch to cover the cost of private home care, everyone will be able to look at and talk about less expensive alternatives before a crisis occurs.