Elder Care in North Palm Beach FL
It's really easy to forget about yourself when you're busy taking care of your elderly loved one. Your own needs fall onto the back burner, and before you know it you're trapped under mountains of stress and facing down caregiver burnout. Here are some ideas for caring for yourself and your elderly loved one at the same time.Get Yourself Organized One of the best gifts that you can give yourself as your loved one's caregiver is the gift of organization. If this means putting together a binder that can hold all of the essential information that you need for her medical appointments, health care, and assorted other issues, then so be it. It's not always about knowing information off the top of your head, it's more often about being able to find the information that you need when you need it.
Form Your Support Team Your loved one has a support team made up of her health care providers, you, other loved ones, and possibly some elder care providers. You need a support team for yourself, as well. This can be made up of friends, family members, your own doctors, counselors, and support group members. Look for people for your support team that you can turn to in both good times and hard times for the most help and support.
Know Your Own Limits As much as you want to do it all, you honestly just can't. There are times that you'll be too tired, too sick, or too something else to be able to care for your elderly loved one. You have to be gracious with yourself about that and allow yourself to stand back when it's appropriate. This is when having your own solid support team helps you the very most.
Don't Forget Time for You One of the best ways to care for yourself is to actually set aside the time to make sure you can do just that. Actually block out the time in your schedule for exercise, meal planning, and time for your own hobbies. The more that you make an effort to treat appointments with yourself as urgent appointments, the easier it will be to keep those appointments with yourself. Practicing self-care is the easiest way to keep yourself from suffering from caregiver stress and burnout.
If you or an aging loved one are considering elder care in North Palm Beach County, FL, contact the caring staff at BrightStar Care of Jupiter. Call today (561) 741-1200.