(KNSI) – Senior caregiving was thrust into the spotlight during the pandemic as COVID-19 cases spread inside nursing homes and seniors were isolated from loved ones. In light of the past year, families might be considering at-home senior care services. Senior care, in general, is in demand.
“There is a great need and the calls are coming in and it’s really challenging to be in this industry,” Jason Crane, president of Home Instead in St. Cloud, said. “People really need home care, and people need care in facilities as well.”
Crane says at-home caregiving has a 1-on-1 setup.
“The support for home care is brought into the home or into the independent living,” Crane said. “It’s 1-on-1 care, so that caregiver who comes into the home to spend time with that senior, whether it’s personal care, whether it’s light housekeeping, bathing cooking meals, spending time together — which is a huge thing especially amidst the pandemic with isolation and loneliness.”
In evaluating whether or not at-home care is right for yourself or a family member, Crane says to consider two things: safety and the senior’s feelings about getting assistance from a hired caregiver. To the first point, Crane talked about his mother, who receives at-home care.
“I still remember telling my mom, ‘We’ve got to remove the rugs, we got to make it safe,’ because in her condition if she has a fall she could break a hip,” Crane said. “You got to have a safe environment, and that even goes for the refrigerator. You can’t have spoiled food and you can’t have food that’s outdated that you could get sick from.”
But the most important thing, Crane says, is making sure the senior is OK with the idea of home care.
“If I was to tell you, ‘Do families bring in care too soon or too late?’ I would absolutely say that they wait too long because the senior is maybe not comfortable with the idea,” he said. “Maybe in the beginning they’re [the caregiver] only doing simple things like companionship, maybe cooking, cleaning, throwing stuff away. Then, as the senior needs more of the cares, like personal cares, those just get added in the future.”
Crane says receiving at-home senior care can not only reduce stress on seniors but also on their familial caregivers. Oftentimes that person, Crane says, is a middle-aged woman who is taking care of one of her parents.
“They want to be a daughter, but they feel like, ‘I’ve got to help my mom, I’ve got to help my dad,’ which creates a lot of stress because they have their own families, they have their own job, they have their own children,” he said. “So that’s when a service like Home Instead would come in, but we see that stress and I think as a family caregiver, they have to give themselves permission to just kind of back away and allow another company to come in.”
But those caregivers — unpaid family members and paid professional senior caregivers — are not immune from the impacts of the pandemic and could feel burnt out. Crane says he’s seen this with his workforce.
“Maybe their kids weren’t able to do school in the classroom, they were getting online school, and now all of a sudden they’re working, they’re coming home, their children need supervision and so that created additional stress,” Crane said. “So we have seen amongst our workforce of caregivers, and I think you’d see it in any job with men and women who are having to provide extra care at home for their children or elderly parent that it’s just compounding the stress.”
Crane says he’s hopeful that the current direction of the pandemic will help people — caregivers and seniors — recharge their batteries and get some stress relief. This comes as the senior caregiving industry is looking for staff.
“We have a lot of caregivers who come in later in life and maybe they’re lost their parents and … they would love to be with someone who’s older and share stories and companionship and help someone,” he said. “If a person is into serving seniors, even if you haven’t done it before professionally, we would love to talk to you.”
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