How Senior Caregivers Can Find Time to Care for Themselves

11/15/2018
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It is quite a privilege to be able to take care of someone else, particularly another senior. As their primary caregiver, you are responsible for maintaining their quality of life and ensuring their golden years are the best they can be. However, it’s also important not to let your caregiving duties dominate your life. In order to be able to properly care for someone else, you first must take care of yourself. Here are some ways you can find time to take care of yourself, without neglecting your senior loved one.

 

Make Time to Practice Self-Care

Finding time to practice self-care without sacrificing your duties as a caregiver can be challenging. Possibly the best way to do this is to encourage your senior to practice self-care themselves, freeing up time for you to be able to do the same. One way to encourage self-care is through exercise programs that are senior-friendly. Maybe that's through an activity you can enjoy together, like swimming, walking, dancing or yoga. Or perhaps it's through a wellness center that offers different programs you can both enjoy.

Exercise is a major part of self-care and can, in turn, improve other facets of your life, like getting enough sleep at night, which is crucial to being a quality caregiver. The same applies to following a healthy diet. The more you fortify yourself through diet and exercise, the better equipped you will be to care for your charge. Look for ways to make this easier on yourself through once-a-week meal prep, consistent bedtime routines and looking for ways to outsource tasks at home (think hiring someone to walk your dog or mow your lawn -- this counts as self-care!).

It's also critical to set aside at least one day a week where you're not providing care. This could mean entrusting your charge to another family member or friend. But having time away and to yourself is necessary to be the best you can at your job.

 

Become a Better Caregiver by Taking Care of Yourself First

Even if you frequently tell the senior in your care about the importance of self-care and how they should take care of themselves, if you are like many caregivers, you may ironically end up neglecting your own self-care. This is dangerous on several levels. Being a caregiver is all about having patience with the senior in your care, understanding their needs, and gently helping them without being aggressive or unpleasant. If you haven’t been taking care of yourself, you may find you’re becoming irritable without cause, leading you to damage your relationship with your senior loved one.

Additionally, going without sleep and regular relaxation — two critical facets of self care — inhibits your ability to process situations, communicate ideas, and perform your duties effectively. This essentially means that, if you don’t take care of yourself and look for ways to manage your stress, you will be significantly less able to take care of your senior charge. It then becomes a vicious cycle; your senior loved one might become upset, adding to your stress, which reduces the amount of time you have for self-care, and so on.

Finally, you should be an example to the senior in your care, demonstrating how to take care of yourself, even when nobody's watching. Failing to practice self-care yourself could damage your credibility as a caregiver.

Making your health and self-care a priority is critical for caregivers. To best meet the needs of your loved one, you must take time for yourself, in addition to staying healthy through diet, exercise and stress management. Tending to yourself will make you a better caregiver and a healthier, happier individual overall.

 

 

Thank You to Our Guest Blog Writer:

Karen Weeks

elderwellness.net
karen@elderwellness.net

Image via Pexels

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