Fostering the right solutions & connections

Order Choose Your Place: Rethinking Home As You AgeI have always been passionate about the concept of aging in place. My grandparents attached an apartment to their own home for their widowed and unmarried siblings to live in, and they all aged together as a family. I grew up with an excellent and practical example of older adults staying in their own home. As a nurse and licensed clinical social worker specializing in Geriatric Mental Health, I have encouraged people to stay at home whenever possible.   Over the years, I have worked with some incredible caregivers and home aides, and really appreciate the hard work that they do.

So, when it came time to help my own dear, aging parents stay in their home with caregivers, I thought, piece of cake! I can do this, I can hire great people, my parents will be so happy and adjust beautifully to having a stranger in their home, and I can manage all this while raising a family in a another part of the country.

No, it didn’t exactly work out as planned.  I have learned the hard way about the darker side of hiring caregivers to care for elders, how complicated, expensive, frustrating and scary it can be. Thankfully, I have also managed to pick up the pieces: I learned how to hire safely; find creative solutions, often with the good advice of experienced caregivers; and create a not perfect, but pretty darned good, safe situation for my parents in their home with the best caregivers that I can find for them.

I have come to view the process of hiring and having caregivers in a family home as a work in progress. I hope to share lessons learned on this blog.