The relationship with your caregiver
A caregiver is a person, who stays with your loved ones for long hours throughout the day. All the small and big needs of your loved ones are taken care of by the caregiver. The hard work of the caregiver and the benefits your senior loved ones get from them should be acknowledged, and it also becomes extremely necessary to understand the kind of relationship you want to build with your caregiver. Building a positive relationship with your caregiver is extremely important for the families of the senior loved ones.
The patient and caregiver relationship can often turn into a difficult one. Illness, disability, sickness makes the family environment gloomy, which in turn can also cause tempers to flare up. Such a scenario can have an unfavorable impact on the relationship of the patient with their caregivers. If such a kind of environment, consisting of heated arguments, temper flare-ups, continues to exist, then healing and quality of care undoubtedly get compromised. For healing to happen, the families must allow a healthy patient-caregiver relationship to flourish.
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Five ways of maintaining a positive relationship with your caregiver
Your parents are not feeling well and are not able to do the tasks by themselves. Furthermore, you are also unable to look after them and give them the time, due to work constraints and demands of your own family. In such cases, it is your hired caregiver, who takes care of your loved ones and looks after their needs.
Therefore, it becomes extremely necessary that you not only honor their efforts. But also, important to maintain a healthy and positive relationship with them. In this article, I will be discussing the 5 most prominent ways of maintaining a positive relationship with your caregiver. Read on to know more.
Respect the caregiver’s and your privacy
Once you gradually bond with the caregiver, you may wish to know more about them and their family. However, your caregiver may carry their inhibitions, and may not be comfortable in sharing their details. Therefore, it is necessary to respect their privacy and not show any interest in their personal life. Similarly, it holds for you and your loved ones as well. Also, if you find your loved one not willing to engage in any type of personal conversation with your caregiver. Then you need to politely explain the same to the caregiver. Your caregiver is here to provide care. They are there with you for long hours, but that doesn’t give you the freedom to share all your personal information. Respecting each other’s privacy is necessary if you want any relation to last long. But if you both are on the same page and wish to divulge private personal information. Be respectful and keep the information between each other.
Communication
This is perhaps one of the most important areas for building a strong relationship. When you have a caregiver at home for your loved ones, then it is always necessary to communicate early and more often. Let them know in advance what you want from them. Your caregiver can perform better when they know exactly what to do. If there is something that you are not happy with, please do not wait to tell the agency. Communicate with your caregiver as soon as possible. And simultaneously also keep the agency informed. Keep communication clear, if you wish to build a strong patient-caregiver relationship!!
Appreciation
All of us loved to get appreciated. And this is true for the caregivers as well. More often than not, we tend to focus on things that do not turn out well. We tend to give priority to things that have gone wrong by the caregiver. This leads to misunderstandings and a lack of trust. It is always a good idea to appreciate your caregiver for the things that they have achieved. If you notice any positive behavioral change in your parents, don’t forget to thank your caregiver. Always remember, appreciation helps in the reinforcement of good behavior!!
Patience and compassion
Patience and compassion are important for building any strong relationship. The caregivers need to understand, that if the patient has suffered any brain injury or trauma, they would need to have patience. Exercising compassion and showing affection towards the patient, will also help to a great extent. This is because, such patients do not have proper control over their actions, and cannot perform many of their tasks independently. In such cases, the caregivers have to be with them to help carry out their tasks. Many times, they are also expected to understand things. Your loved one might not be able to communicate properly. Having a positive approach along with care and compassion can help build a positive patient-caregiver relationship!!
Address problems skillfully
Problems are bound to occur. However, handling them smartly will help in building a positive relationship. The problems can be as small as your caregiver showing up late or bigger one as a personality conflict with your loved one. Whatever the problem is, handled it delicately. As far as possible, handle the problem in a composed manner. If something is not right, don’t yell right away. Understand the actual problem first. Figure out what kind of situation led to the problem and then decide and give judgment. It is always best to avoid any kind of communication with your caregiver when you are angry or upset. Let the storm within you pass, and once you are calm, talk to your caregiver. Words are best understood when said with a calm mind!!
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Benefits of a positive relationship between the caregiver and the patient
The need for a caregiver may arise. When there is a crisis in the family; a disease, an injury, or a terminal illness, that leaves your loved one in need. Also, the presence of the caregiver gives you a constant reminder of the unfortunate events that caused your loved one to become dependent on others. Furthermore, your loved one may also show their displeasure. As they begin to realize their incapability of doing things, they could have otherwise done.
However, your professional caregiver can view the relationship from a different perspective. They know their job, and value your loved one’s health and do their job with utmost compassion and persistence. Building a strong and positive relationship with your caregiver can benefit you and your loved ones in the following significant ways:
- Improvement in emotional health
Depression is a common condition that haunts our loved ones due to loneliness and isolation. This is one of the major factors, that contributes to poor health. With caregivers around them for a major time of the day. They can help in driving away their loneliness and depression.
- Mental peace
With a caregiver around, you can have peace of mind, that your loved ones have companionship and someone to interact with. When you know, your loved one enjoys the company of their caregivers, you are more relaxed and it allows you to do your work with full concentration.
- Companionship
This is the most important advantage of having a positive patient-caregiver relationship. The caregiver not only takes care of every single need of your loved ones. But also, are great companions for your loved ones. Your loved one has someone to talk to and spend time with. this is especially important when they are unable to venture out frequently.
Conclusion
Overseeing this can cause you to stress because you can’t be in 2 places at one time: taking care of your business and taking care of your loved one. I understand your requirements, and put your loved one’s health and their needs above anything else! Meeting your requirements is my top priority.
This will give you the opportunity to get some rest and also make sure your loved one is properly cared for. Or maybe you want to spend more time with your loved one while taking a break from some of the redundant business tasks like sending out emails, returning calls, or organizing files. Let’s chat about how I can be of service to you so you can take care of your business and your loved one.
About the Author
Tena Scallan is the owner of https://www.theultimatecaregivingexpert.com, a passionate healthcare professional, consultant, published author and a virtual assistant that will help lighten the load of caregivers who are trying to run their business while caring for a loved one. She had over 25 years of experience in the health care industry.
Tena has dedicated her life’s work to serving others in caregiving, hospitals, running her own in-home caregiving agency and providing consulting and guidance for family caregivers. She also became a private caregiver to see what was lacking in the industry. Furthermore, she was able to have a fresh perspective with both sides of the fence and now feel that I am knowledgeable enough to teach and help everyone on everything caregiving.
Tena firmly believes that both home and lifestyle can be preserved by compassionate caregiving in the face of aging or illness.