Understanding the Roles of Respite Caregivers for Seniors

[Guest guest]

A Free-Reprint Article Written by: Bob Fischer

Article Title:

Understanding the Roles of Respite Caregivers for Seniors

See TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article.

Article Description:

Caregivers for seniors are typically paid providers but they

may also be volunteers from a government or nonprofit

organization. Where care is being provided in the home there

is often a mix of formal and informal care provided. And the

trend is towards using more formal care since, unlike the

past, more informal respite caregivers are employed. Read

on.

Additional Article Information:

===============================

582 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line

Distribution Date and Time: 2010-11-02 12:30:00

Written By: Bob Fischer

Copyright: 2010

Contact Email: mailto:communitycarehhs@...

For more free-reprint articles by Bob Fischer, please visit:

http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/recent/author/bob-fischer.html

=============================================

Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters:

=============================================

HTML Copy-and-Paste and TEXT Copy-and-Paste

Versions Of Article Are Available at:

http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/f/respite-caregivers-for-seniors.sh\

tml#get_code

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Understanding the Roles of Respite Caregivers for Seniors

Copyright © 2010 Bob Fischer

Community Care HHS

http://www.communitycarehhs.com/

Caregivers for seniors are typically paid providers but they may

also be volunteers from a government or nonprofit organization.

Where care is being provided in the home there is often a mix of

formal and informal care provided.

And the trend is towards using more formal care since, unlike the

past, more informal respite caregivers are employed. They choose

to remain employed but must juggle limited time between

caregiving and maintaining a household and a job. These added

responsibilities often make it necessary to hire non-medical home

care aides to provide supervision and help when the primary

caregiver cannot be present.

Or as adult day services become more common, caregivers may pay

for this form of formal caregiving to get rest or to allow for

maintaining some employment. When care is no longer possible in

the home, then formal caregivers come into play on a full-time

basis.

This may be in the form of a congregate living arrangement,

assisted living, home nursing agency, a continuing care

retirement community or a nursing home. It is at this point that

long term care can have a significant impact on the finances of

the care recipient and a healthy spouse living at home.

Care facilities are quite expensive and the cost for maintaining

a spouse in such a living arrangement may rob a healthy spouse at

home of an adequate standard of living. It's quite possible the

healthy spouse may end up with food stamps and subsidized housing

where, before the need for a care facility, this may not have

been the case.

Or it is more often the case that the couple recognizes this

dilemma of splitting living arrangements in two locations and an

attempt will be made to keep the spouse needing care at home as

long as possible.

This may help with the finances but often results in destroying

the physical and emotional health of the caregiver by creating a

situation where the caregiver has difficulty coping with the

responsibilities and physical demands. Another reality of

providing informal care services in the home is the increasing

need for physical and emotional support that often goes

unrecognized until too late.

As care needs increase, both in the number of hours required and

in the number or intensity of activities requiring help, there is

a greater need for the services of formal caregivers.

Unfortunately, many informal caregivers become so focused on

their task they don't realize they are getting in over their

heads and they have reached the point where some or complete

formal caregiving is necessary. Or the informal caregiver may

recognize the need for paid, professional help but does not know

where to get the money to pay for it.

Other members of the family should be aware of this burden and be

prepared to step in and help their loved one who is providing

care recognize the possibility of becoming overloaded.

It is also the job of a care manager or a financial adviser or an

attorney to recognize this need with the client caregiver and

provide the necessary counsel to protect the caregiver from

overload. The advisor can also likely find a source for paying

for formal care that the caregiver may not be aware of.

An overloaded caregiver is likely to develop depression and/or

physical ailments and could end up needing long term care as

well. The consequences of not being able to cope with the burden

of caregiving might even result in an early death for the

caregiver.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Fischer serves as a resource for respite caregivers and

gives insights into ethical home nursing agency services.

Learn more at: http://www.communitycarehhs.com/