When you and other family members are able to come together as a team, this gives you a different caregiving situation than a lot of family caregivers face. You may still have some gaps in what you’re all able to do together, and this is where other solutions can come to the rescue.

Make a List of Actual and Potential Needs

Make a list of what your elderly family member needs now and potentially in the future. For instance, she might need help now with managing light household tasks. In the future, she might need additional help with cooking, dressing and bathing, or transportation. It’s important to start thinking about all of these issues now so you can put a plan together.

Determine What Options You Have for Meeting Those Needs

Take a look at what options you have for starting to meet those needs. Some of your family members may be able to take over the laundry and the vacuuming, for instance. Others may have organizational skills that you can take advantage of or they love to cook healthy meals. All of these are important details that can help you with your ultimate plan.

Figure out What Duties You Can Divide and Share

As you’re sorting through everyone’s strengths and what they can do you can start to assign those tasks to yourself and to others. This is going to help you to get an accurate picture of what you can do now and possibly in the future as well. The situation can change rapidly, especially if your senior’s health is rather fragile.

Assess What Other Forms of Help You’ll Need

At this point, you may start to have a much better idea what gaps exist in your current situation. Home care providers can bridge that gap for you. Home care providers can take over a variety of different tasks, even if what you need right now is someone to offer companionship for your senior. From there you can continue to assess what’s working and what still needs to be handled in a different way.

The key to making teamwork effective for your aging family member is to make sure that you’re all communicating with each other. If you’re not able to do that in person as often as necessary, make sure you have something in place, like a caregiving binder, that collects all the vital information everyone needs in one place.

For Home Care Services in Millington TN, please contact the caring staff at Personal Care Services MidSouth today!