Need a Break? Respite Care May Be the Ticket!

As a family caregiver, you may feel less like the holidays are the most wonderful time of the year, and more like they’re the most stressful time of year! Providing in-home care for a loved one during the rest of the year, on top of all of life’s ongoing daily tasks in our own lives, is challenging enough; add in shopping and wrapping and parties and kids’ activities, and it’s easy to quickly become completely overwhelmed.

Statistics show that the average family caregiver devotes more than 24 hours each week to providing care at home for a loved one; and 1 in 4 caregivers spends over 40 hours per week meeting care needs. As care needs progress and become more demanding, family caregivers’ health can quickly become at risk, resulting in serious concerns such as caregiver burnout, depression, and more.

It’s clear that help is needed for family members who provide ongoing care for a loved one, but there’s a twofold problem that often occurs:

• It can be hard to ask for assistance from other family members and friends who are just as busy; and
• It’s equally hard to relinquish control, with concerns that perhaps the person filling in won’t know how to do things in just the way they need to be done.

And so the primary family caregiver finds it easier to simply continue trying to manage it all alone.

There is a viable solution, however: professional respite care. Respite care allows family caregivers to take much-needed breaks for their own self-care, through partnering with a trusted, experienced, trained in-home caregiver – such as those at To The Rescue. Our care staff are fully licensed, bonded, and insured, and can cover a wide range of home health and non-medical needs, such as:

• Skilled nursing care:
  • Disease and pain management
  • Wound care
  • Post-surgical care
  • Catheter and colostomy care
  • And more
• Non-medical care:
  • Meal planning and preparation
  • Housekeeping and laundry
  • Running errands
  • Friendly companionship
  • And more

We meet with families during a free in-home consultation to listen to their specific challenges, and then create a plan of home care to help alleviate stress for family caregivers by providing the most appropriate level of high quality care, right in the comfort of home. Whether that need is for just a few hours each week to allow family caregivers the chance to take a break and relax, for full-time, around-the-clock assistance, or anything in between, our professional respite care services help bring a healthy balance back to life for those providing care, and enhance quality of life for those in need of care.

You can reach us at our Colorado home care office at 720-851-2100, or at our Iowa home care office at 319-826-6068 to learn more.