There is one axiom that if your parents don’t pass away
young in life, you are going to watch them age.
Now for the most part, this is a natural and nice part of life because
mom and dad can slowly become grandma and grandpa which are nice roles for them
after working so hard to raise you.
But a corollary to that axiom is that if mom and dad are
going to age, at some point you are going to begin helping them with the daily
affairs of life. And that occasional
helping will escalate as their needs grow strong until you will become a full-fledged
caregiver for an elderly person.
For many, the time when you suddenly become a caregiver is
just that – sudden. It happens often
after the death of a parent and the widowed parent suddenly becomes needy
because of the loss they are experiencing.
For married couples who have been together for decades, that loss is equivalent
to the loss of a limb and far more devastating so that may be the time when you
suddenly go from having few concerns for your aging parent to having many.
It might be strange to look at it this way, but the more you
can ease into care giving, the more time you have to get used to it, for your
elderly parent or parents to get used and for your family, forefends and coworkers
to get used to it. And if you can step
in and make some minor changes to the environment of your aging parent, you may
be able to delay the time when they become very dependent on you.
If your parent or parents are still living in their own
home, there are things you can do to make their living space more accessible
and safe including…
Create
a lifestyle that is all on one level. Stairs
can become a hazard for an elderly person.
So early in your plans to adapt their living space, move them into a
ground floor bedroom and put all significant rooms, including the kitchen, the pantry,
the laundry room and the living room are on the same level.
Take
some of the work out of daily chores.
Most local grocery stores will deliver food to the elderly so you can
make those arrangements for your aging parent.
You can also find services that work by the hour that come in and clean
the house, do simple repairs and chores and take care of the business of home
ownership for your parents.
You
can make arrangements with home health
care professionals to drop by for an hour or two a week just to make sure your
parents medications are still safe to use, that all prescriptions have been
filled and that your parent understands their medications and when and how to take
them.
Reorganize
the kitchen so things your parent will use every day are on an eye level shelf
and are easy to get to and to put away after washing. Make sure the toaster oven, microwave and
other important appliances are also easy to get to and that your parent is
comfortable with these units if the models that may have come with the assisted
living center are not familiar to them.
Go
through the house and make it easy for your parent to use. You can put in those walking and grab bars
along the halls and in the bathtub and other places where your mom or dad might
need the additional support. You can
check the lights so there are plenty of visibility for what your parents have
to do.
To really take the preparation of your parent’s living space
for their ease of use and safety, look at pulling emergency pull ropes in every
room. These units are used extensively
in assisted care units and they make it possible for your parent to pull that
cord if she is in trouble and set off an alarm or call to you or to emergency
care, should there be a sudden medical need.
By working to make your parent’s work area easy to use and
safe, you can do a lot to put off the time when your mom or dad may have to
move to a retirement village or nursing home.
And you keep them independent which allows you to slowly ease into care
giving which is much easier on everybody.
The relationship between an elderly person and his or her
caregiver is complex and intense sometimes.
But that relationship does not exist in a vacuum. There are a lot of people affected by what is
going on when that caregiver goes to that senior citizens apartment and give to
him or her that one on one attention that is so necessary.
For one thing, the caregiver’s friends, family and coworkers
are affected. Becoming the primary
person responsible for the care and well being of a senior citizen is a
peculiar job because it is tremendously demanding and completely unpaid. Caregivers are for the most part children or
close relatives of the senior citizen being cared for and they have jobs,
families and a full life outside of the time they put in taking care of their
parent or parents.
So when that responsibility falls to you, those around you
also have to give a little to help you accomplish that goal. But for those who are related to a caregiver,
there is a demand on you as well. If mom
has to go over to Grandpa’s apartment every night for two or three hours, that
means mom isn’t home helping you with your homework, making supper or just
being available if her little girl needs someone to talk to.
If dad is gone thirty or forty hours a week taking care of
Grandpa, that is time he is not home providing guidance for his kids, fixing
the garbage disposal or making those corny but fun jokes the kids groan about
but love. Similarly, the friends and
working world of a caregiver are also asked to give up a little or a lot of the
mind, the emotions and the time of that caregiver so he or she can go and care
for that elderly parent and divert that energy and time in that direction.
For those of us who have a caregiver in our family or part
of our social or work circle, in addition to the sacrifices, you can become
concerned for your friend or loved one because of the demands of caring for a
senior citizen. It’s a job that is
taxing to even the strongest adult and one that take a lot out of your friend
or family member. Caregiver burn out is
a common syndrome and it doesn’t just affect the caregiver. If your parent, spouse, coworker or friend
undergoes a break down from the stress of caring for her mom or dad, that will
have an impact on everyone.
So there is a compelling need for all of us associated with
a caregiver to learn to care for that caregiver to help her and support her in
what she is doing. Some specific things you can do are…
Let
them know you believe in what they are doing.
Caregivers often feel very alone and guilty that they are not attending
to family and other relationships. By
letting her know you are 100% behind what she is doing and that you are doing
fine, that guilt is removed which makes her know she can make it.
Let
her know she is missed.
Pick
up the slack. Each evening if dad and
the kids can pick up the house, then mom can get some sleep and know that you
are taking care of business at home so she doesn’t have to worry about it.
Let
mom sleep in. Maybe even bring her
breakfast in bed every so often.
Pitch
in. Go over and help grandma out
yourself so it’s not all on mom.
An
unexpected surprise. Every so often do something to surprise and totally
delight mom and give her a fun break from her worries of care giving. A movie out or a limo ride around town can go
a long way for a weary caregiver.
If the spouse, the children and friends and associates of
the coworker can keep and eye on her to look out for those signs of burn out,
it may be our responsibility to jump in and give her some support before
everything falls apart. By caring for
the caregiver, she is better able to give attention to that senior citizen she
is caring for. So in a way we are all
becoming part of the effort to give the caregiver’s mom or dad the best care
possible. And that is what community is
all about.
More and more businesses are facing a challenge and some decisions to be made. As the baby boom generation moves into retirement years and becomes elderly, the workers that make your business function so efficiently are going to have the additional demands placed on them of becoming the primary caregiver for an aging parent.
It’s easy to just shrug at this need in your employee
population but just as the demands of parenting can have a huge impact on the
workplace, the personal needs of your employees to take care of their aging
parents will have an impact on the office and the productivity of your business.
Business can no longer be cavalier and declare, “Well they
can just quit and we can find new employees.”
The brutal truth is that skilled, trained and mature employees don’t, as
they day, grow on trees. With the work
force shrinking, it’s foolish to think that if you have a solid and hard working
employee who knows his job and does good work for your business, that employee
can’t just be replaced with a kid right out of school.
The cost to your business can be devastating if you have a
policy of running off good, hard working and smart employees because they are
becoming caregivers in their personal lives and replacing them with younger,
unskilled employees who are less informed about the ways of business. The costs of training and the learning curve
of the job alone will easily be more than any costs of accommodating existing
employees. Moreover, you cannot just replace
judgment, relationships, market savvy and wisdom which many of the employees in
the age bracket bring to your business.
So how do you accommodate the needs of this new group of
caregivers who are beginning to become a regular part of your workforce? The first step is to understand what they are
going through. These people are going to
take care of their loved ones whether you are aware of it or not. So if you can partner with them to make them successful
at home, they will work extra hard to make you successful in the marketplace.
Start with some seminars and brown bag lunches where people
can come and share the demands they are going through as caregivers for elderly
parents or loved ones. Invite everyone
to these lunches because there will be many in your business who know that is
coming up for them and want to learn all they can about what is ahead. By making an open discussion of elderly care
issues part of the discussion at work, you are communicating that you want to
help and not hinder what your employees are facing. And that will endear you to them and get you
the reputation of being one of those “good employers” in town.
Not all employees who are caregivers will need accommodation
all the time. If their parent’s needs are
not that demanding, it will be more of an emotional adjustment than a demand on
the schedule. But encourage each
employee who is entering into a time of being the primary caregiver for their
parent to communicate that to you both through meetings with the Human Resource
department and to their boss as well.
There is a practical side to getting inside of what is going
on with your employees. To your workers,
they see you as family and feel more bonded to the workplace because you are
concerned about their parents. But for
you, the business will know in detail what is going on with that situation so
you can anticipate if that worker will see sudden interruption come up at work
and adjust schedules accordingly.
Be sensitive and be communicative with your employees and
you can truly become their partner in dealing with this tough part of their
lives. And in doing so, they will feel
that you support them and their loyalty to the company will skyrocket. That loyalty will translate into better
productivity and longevity in your workforce.
That stability translates into a more efficient organization which is a
more profitable organization. So in the
long run, partnering with your caregivers in the workplace just makes good
business sense.
The Caregiver Cafe 