Although known as the golden age, old age arrives with many unwanted appendages. Age-related health issues, loss of balance and coordination, and a general shortage of proactive energy dents the confidence and independence of many elderly people. This means they slowly lose their full independence and become physically dependent on others. But, this doesn’t just affect them but also affects their loved ones.

When you have an elderly member, the responsibility of looking after them joins the already long list of your duties and responsibilities, making you vulnerable to physical, mental, and emotional stress. But, if you know the right way of managing these responsibilities, life gets easier for you.

Here is how you can simplify your life when taking care of an ailing elderly loved one.

Put your organisational skills to use

You look after your family, cook meals, do household chores, take care of mortgages and bills, and manage your office work. When an additional responsibility lands on your shoulders, things are likely to run out of hands. But, if you have good organisational skills, managing your tasks and priorities, along with someone else’s responsibility, becomes easier.

With proper organisation, you will be able to take care of every regular task and create some extra time in your day.

To get organised, pen down your regular tasks and responsibilities in a notebook. With this, you will secure important information in one place and won’t have to scratch your head to remember anything. Please make sure you note down the tasks according to their priority so that you don’t spend your time doing the less important tasks first.

Ask your family for support

Juggling too many tasks at once creates room for errors. If it’s getting difficult for you to look after multiple things, ask for help. Divide the responsibilities equally among your family members. For instance, let your husband/wife offer personal assistance to the loved one, while you speak with the medical staff and manage medications and ask your children to take your loved one for a walk or to the park for some outdoor time. Distribution of workload will manage stress.

Seek Professional Health Care

When taking care of an elderly loved one, simplifying life can be a challenge. One way to make it easier is to consider independent senior living. This type of living allows the older person to maintain their independence while receiving help with daily activities like household chores, meal preparation, and transportation. Independent senior living can also provide access to social activities, health care, and other services that can help simplify caregiving.

Hire a home health aid

Generally, as age progresses, the health condition of elderly citizens deteriorates, and they require assistance from skilled professionals.

If the condition of your loved one is declining with time, but you are apprehensive about sending them to a nursing home or rehabilitation centre, consider hiring a home health aide or HHA.

Their duties include offering medical care, wound care, health monitoring and recording, planning a suitable diet, meal preparation, assistance with personal tasks (bathing, grooming, etc.), speech and occupational therapy, psychiatric care, and pain management. They use advanced home care software to provide better care facilities. It helps them in care planning, and record health progress.

HHAs not only offer medical assistance but also share the complete responsibilities with you. They prepare special meals for your loved one and serve them, run errands for them, take them to the doctor, and offer them companionship. Moreover, HHAs teach you appropriate ways of turning, lifting, repositioning, and transporting your loved one.

Take some time off

Too many responsibilities can crush you under their load, and to be able to stand tall and handle everything, it’s important that you stay in your best shape -physically, mentally, and emotionally. Hence, make it a point to take out some “me time” from your busy schedule and indulge in something that relaxes you.

Take this time to exercise, take up a hobby, catch up with a friend, or laze around.  This will help you to re-channel your energy.

The bottom line

When you find yourself saddled with too many responsibilities, it is natural for you to freak out. If you don’t want to taint your selfless love for your loved one with frustration and stress, adopt these hacks, and make your life easy.