By Nyesha Stone
A daughter attending a business meeting while checking her phone for updates on her parent. (Picture taken by Home Instead Senior Care)
It’s no secret that every day we become older yet, it can take years for us to actually feel the symptoms of being old. With old age comes new changes, such as not being able to take care of oneself, which is where a caretaker steps in. In this day and age, caretakers tend to be adult children who step in to take care of their aging parents.
In general, caretakers provide assistance in a multitude of ways to individuals like bathing, feeding, and ensuring sure that the individual can live life the best way they can.
Back in March of 2017, Home Instead, Inc., a franchisor of the Home Instead Senior Care network, conducted an interview to better understand the productivity loss in jobs, and to start a conversation.
According to the survey, women are more affected by being caretakers than men because traditionally women are the ones who take care of others.
Additionally, 9 out 10 women said they’ve made personal sacrifices to take care of an aging parent like using their vacation time to tend to that parent.
In cases like these, women are not only taking care of themselves, but their parent(s), children and working either full or part-time jobs. With all of these duties, women can become overwhelmed and stressed out.
Franchise owners of Home Instead Senior Care Michelle Kyhn and Bret Beighley says it’s important to bring awareness to this issue because there are resources out there to help take the load off of the caregiver.
“There’s only so much time in a day,” said Kyhn, “[but] there’s a lot of flexibility with homecare.”
Home Instead Senior Care offers a list of services to best fit each individual. The services are dependent on what the individual or family wants, such as doing laundry, bathing or fully taking care of that individual while the original caretaker is out of the country.
“The goal is to be safe in the home,” said Beighley.
There are five steps Home Instead Senior Care suggests to caregivers to help them achieve a better balance and maintain their health: be realistic, take care of yourself, arrange for help, educate/inform your employer and find support.
While these aren’t the only things one should focus on, it’s a start.
For more resources and tips visit www.DaughtersintheWorkplace.com