The decision to include home health providers in your loved one’s care team can be difficult for families to make. Your loved one may be in denial about needing assistance. You may feel guilt for recognizing that you can’t provide all necessary care independently. 

There’s great beauty in expanding your family member’s care team and partnering with home health providers. While they fulfill medical and routine caregiving needs with great expertise and confidence, you have time to focus on other critical tasks for your loved one. Follow these home health tips to simplify the transition of growing your care team. 

Start By Understanding Current Needs

Before you establish an action plan, evaluate your family member’s needs by learning and assessing more about their capabilities. This assessment will reveal the primary areas where assistance may be beneficial. 

To gain a full understanding of the need:

• Learn. Spend a few days with your loved one shadowing their activities of daily living to determine what they’re able to accomplish independently and what requires assistance. Write down their needs in a caregiving journal for future reference. Consider this aging parent checklist. You may be pleasantly surprised what your family member can complete themselves or be discouraged from learning they would most benefit from significant help. 
• Assess. With an understanding of what your family member is capable of managing, determine what assistance you can provide and what you can outsource. 
• Plan. Make the calls necessary to put help in place for your family member. Hire an agency to take your family member to appointments or manage medications. Sign up for a meal delivery service to ensure nutritious meals are accessible. Eliminate all the burden from your shoulders. 

5 Tips to Successfully Integrate Home Health Care 

Learn from others who have implemented home health care before, and follow these five tips to ensure your loved one receives your best self. 

1. Get Support

They say it takes a village to raise a child. The same is true for caring for ill or aging family members. If you accept at the onset that you aren’t a superhero who can do it all alone, you’ll be able to sustain the journey over time. Get help from:

• Family and Friends. Reach out to family and friends with specific tasks they can do to support you and your loved one. In addition to identifying things, they can do for your family member, communicate ways they can support you in the role of primary caregiver. 
• Activities of Daily Living Assistants. A caring nursing assistant can provide your family member with comfort, safety, and dignity when assisting with the completion of daily living activities like bathing and grooming. 
• Hire In-Home Care. Allow your loved one to stay in the comfort of their home by allowing in-home health providers to complete routine care. 

2. Establish Channels of Communication

There’s a huge opportunity for information overload when caring for a family member. It’s best to establish clear processes for documenting medical details, medication needs, diet, exercise, daily mood, etc. To communicate well:

• Talk With Doctors. Make sure you have direct access to your loved one’s medical team. Ensure the correct paperwork is filed to provide you with rights to their information. 
• Stay Connected to Your Family Member. Create a predictable, reliable way to regularly touch base with your loved one. Perhaps you’ll call every night between 5 and 6 p.m. or on your way to work each morning. Integrate it into your routine so your family member knows when they’ll hear from you and won’t call numerous times throughout the day when you need to attend to other things. 
• Check-In with Caregivers. Create a consistent avenue for receiving reports and updates from caregivers. Consider using a home health app for mobile phones for real-time updates. 

3. Stay Organized

Though it can be a lot of work at the onset to get everything outlined, you’ll reap the rewards by creating caregiving systems that work for you and your family. To stay organized:

• Set a Schedule. Create rhythms for your loved one by coordinating similar activities at the same time each day. Establish that medications come before meals, and a snack is served following an afternoon nap. Predictability is comforting. 
• Make Lists. Lists will help you and others who choose to step in and care for your family member. Outline medication dosage and schedules, likes and dislikes, favorite activities, the hygiene routine, and anything else you can receive assistance with. 
• Gather Records. Compile all medical records in digital and printed formats. Upload the digital files to a cloud so you can access them from anywhere. Keep paper copies at home for easy reference when you have direct access. 
• Utilize Technology. Embrace mobile applications that can simplify caregiving tasks. There’s everything from medication managers to communication applications for caregivers.
  

4. Take Breaks

Call on others to carry the load so you can focus on yourself. Self-care is critical, especially when caring for an aging parent. When caring for a family member:

• Be Honest About Your Limits. Objectively look at your week and determine how much time you can devote to caring for your family member while still caring for yourself. Once you arrive at a number, set boundaries to maintain those commitments. 
• Engage in Hobbies. Do things that fill your cup and bring you joy. It will likely feel like you don’t have a spare hour in the week. Still, if you disconnect from your caregiving responsibilities and divert your attention to something you love, you’ll return refreshed to your family member. 
• Maintain Social Connections. Keep communication flowing with friends and coworkers. Embrace opportunities to go on a run with a friend or take a long lunch with a coworker. Don’t become consumed by your caregiving duties and opt out of opportunities for connection. 

5. Listen to Your Emotions

Grief is a process and includes grieving how things used to be. It may be difficult for you to cope with the ways your family member is changing, and you shouldn’t rush yourself. 

Support is available from qualified therapists and counselors. Don’t be afraid to seek help in coping with the changes occurring in your family. 

Let Fokes Handle Your Family’s Communication Needs 

Streamline the channels where you keep records, notes, and essential health information about your family member by using the Fokes app to manage information. It offers a three-prong communication platform where all caregivers can communicate in real-time. Contact Fokes to learn more about using the app to provide your loved one with the greatest level of care.