As your loved ones – especially your parents – age, the roles slowly reverse. They will need you to take care of them. Acting as the primary caretaker while also keeping your life and your family’s stability could be a hard task to do. On the other hand, putting your parents in a nursing home will give you mixed feelings of guilt and sadness.
However, this is a great way to ensure that they get the best quality of care and service that they deserve. This will also help you balance family, work, and a little bit of alone time.
Also, in this way, they will get to meet and know other people that they can talk to and relate to while never losing touch with you and your family.
Health Care Needs
Keep in mind that as people age, their needs also progress. A simple manageable situation can escalate into something more serious over a little period of time. When unsupervised, conditions such as dementia and restricted mobility can pose health risks to an elderly person.
If you are thinking of acting as the primary caregiver, think of the following tasks that come with the role:
- Tracking doctor’s appointments
- Managing and maintaining medication
- Moving/lifting a parent
- Coping with changes in behavior
It would be hard to do these and keep up with your life, family, and job. Nursing homes offer round-the-clock care and supervision to make sure your loved ones are getting the best care.
Financial Considerations
Aside from long-term insurance, which is not always enough to cover the expenses, you also have to consider home upgrades that will suit your loved one’s needs along with your mortgage. This is not to mention the taxes that will surely increase when your upgrades have been put into calculation.
Personal Obligations
As we keep pointing out in the earlier parts, you have to balance your job, your family, and your own needs too. This can be hard to do when you have to care for someone 24/7 or even just half of the day/week. You might end up not doing anything productive or of quality for everything and everyone.
Your Own Limitations
Let’s be honest, nothing is really sure in this life. We don’t just mean major unfortunate events. What if you have other emergencies to attend to? A friend in great need is an example. What if fever, flu, or even colds hit you?
There are a lot of things to consider when you are deciding whether to put your loved ones into a nursing home or not. But finding the best suited home is the best for everyone in some situations.
