Do You Have a Support Team?

Having your very own support team gives you a chance to create some breathing room for yourself. You’ll enjoy caregiving more and you’ll have a group you can count on for help when you need it.

What Can a Support Team Do?

A support team is going to be able to handle different tasks for you with little to no supervision on your part. These are people with whom you know you can leave a variety of tasks and they’ll deal with them and let you know the results. These are people that you trust and who likely have a vested interest in helping your aging adult, too.

Get an Idea Who Can Be Part of Your Support Team

All sorts of people might make up your support team. Many will know that they’re part of your team. For instance, other family members, neighbors, and friends likely know a great deal about your situation. Elder care providers know just what to do to help out. But other people, such as the person who delivers your senior’s groceries or prescriptions may not realize just how much they’re helping out.

Figure out What You Need

It’s really common as a caregiver to not even know what you need help with on a daily basis. When you’re just doing as much as possible, day in and day out, those tasks blend together. Start making a list. That list needs to include everything you can think of that someone might be able to take over for you. You might even make this list over a period of days or weeks to make sure you capture all sorts of tasks.

Keep Track of Who Is Handling What

When you start matching up people and tasks, you need to keep track of who is doing what. If you don’t, you might ask two different people to do the same thing. Or you might think that someone is already handling something but no one is. When you’ve got a solid idea who is doing what, you can keep up with everything much more easily.

Don’t Micromanage

You might be tempted to micromanage your team, but do what you can to avoid that. It tends to backfire in several ways. First of all, you’re spending lots of energy doing that which is better spent elsewhere. Second of all, you’re likely to alienate the very people who are helping you and that’s a really bad idea.

Although this sounds like a lot of work at first, it really will help you to manage your task load. You’re going to be able to delegate more tasks to other people and you’ll be able to have the energy and the time that you need to deal with the rest of your life.

If you or an aging loved one are considering elder care in Perth Amboy, NJ, please contact the caring staff at Care Street Home Care of New Brunswick today. Call (732) 607-8870.