You’re not close enough to provide the care your mom needs. You rely on another family caregiver to help your mom each day. It makes you feel helpless and even a little bit useless. How can you help out when you’re not the primary caregiver?
Order Surprise Gifts From Time to Time
Have you treated the family caregiver to a surprise recently? Order a basket of the caregiver’s favorite treats. If you know the caregiver loves a specific coffee, order some and have it delivered to your mom’s house.
Look into services that travel to the home and offer spa treatments without leaving the house. Arrange mani/pedis for your mom and her caregiver. A massage is another option that helps soothe muscle tension and ease some of the stress caregivers experience.
You could pay a local catering company or restaurant to prepare and deliver a dinner. It frees up some time for the caregiver, allowing that person to have an hour or two to relax.
Take Care of Some Care Needs Online
You might not live nearby, but what can you do from a phone or computer? Ask if you could help out by researching medication prices, insurance plans, or health issues. Compile reports from the information you find and share them with the primary family caregiver.
Another way to help is by scheduling appointments and setting up reminders. Create a spreadsheet or calendar through a sharable site, such as Google Drive. It makes it easy for the caregiver to access and keep track of upcoming appointments.
Take over refilling prescriptions. Mark a month on the calendar and check in regularly to see if medication supplies are running low. When they are, order refills and arrange to have them delivered to the house to save the caregiver a trip to the pharmacy.
You could also take over paying the bills online and keeping track of incoming retirement income. If a payment doesn’t arrive for your mom’s pension or Social Security income, you can track down where it is. When it’s tax season, you could help complete and file them too.
Hire Home Care Aides to Provide Breaks
When was the last time the family caregiver had a break? If you know that it’s been months or years, it’s time to change that. Make sure respite care is available to allow the caregiver to stay home and catch up on sleep, go out with friends, or take a vacation.
Home care assistance provides your mom’s primary caregiver with much-needed breaks. If you can help out by taking over for a bit, do so as often as you can. If it’s not possible as you live too far away, discuss the benefits of home care assistance with your family.