Thanks to a couple of smart and very caring friends of mine for today’s quick post. Everyone with a mother, mother-in-law (MIL) or even a grandmother will want to read on.
We cannot ever have enough resources when a parent or grandparent needs care or help getting around. Women tend to live longer than men, so Mom and Grandma are the ones who need the most help in their later years. Family members provide the highest percentage of help but often get in over their heads. The next step becomes researching in-home care giving – which has become exorbitantly expensive while still necessary.
In a dream world, a care giver would provide in-home loving and effective care, charge a reasonable fee, be trustworthy AND never retire or move on. This scenario, of course, is not reality. Although in a handful of cases senior care providers do turn out to be “a dream”, most are average or below average. Care givers can:
- tend to quit when higher paying work presents itself,
- charge ever-increasing rates even if they don’t quit,
- turn out NOT to be trustworthy,
- provide the minimum of acceptable care.
Sadly, the situation is often even worse.
The coronavirus pandemic prevented lots of families from being together often (or at all) over the past 2+ years, and care giving and researching quality senior care became beyond challenging. BUT – there are still places to go for expertise, advice and, yes, CARE for Mom (or Dad).
Care-related services such as “A Place for Mom” or “Home Instead” can be excellent solutions. Caring.com provides resources and referrals. Similar to real estate agents, there are “senior care agents” and the like who will accompany grown children – mostly adults in their 50’s or early 60’s with moms needing care – to visits to multiple independent and assisted living communities. There is even an Alexa app (for those who are into apps) called Alexa Together that can manage in-home care with reminders and alerts.
In the case of “A Place for Mom,” an adult child can get access to an email distribution of resources, ideas, and tips to make the care giving search much easier. Try out a handful of these resources sooner rather than later to make planning for care – and the cost of care – more manageable down the line. It could even help make the search for YOUR care someday a bit easier.