How Respite Services Can Help Facilitate Independent Living

How Respite Services Can Help Facilitate Independent Living

How Respite Services Can Help Facilitate Independent Living

The number of facilities providing assisted living services have grown over the years and the laws and regulations governing these facilities have drastically improved the level of care available to individuals requiring assistance in their daily lives. However, unpaid caregivers – spouses, partners, family members, or friends of individuals requiring constant assisted care – represent a significant portion of the caregiver population in the United States. The National Caregiving Alliance’s last survey from 2015 showed that in the United States, there were 43.5 million caregivers to children and adults, with another 34.2 million caregivers providing care for elderly family members. As these numbers have grown in the interim, it’s important to educate the community of the important role respite care services can play in the health and well-being for caregivers and their charges.

What is Respite Care?

Providing constant care for children or adults with special needs or to seniors who cannot care for themselves due to illness or simple old-age can be an exhausting endeavor, both physically and mentally. For the health of the caregiver and the well-being of all involved, it’s vital that caregivers be able to take a break from providing their services in order to perform day-to-day tasks, recharge mentally, or for any other myriad of valid reasons. The challenge of course being, who takes care of their charge in their absence? This is where respite care services play a key role. With services ranging from in-facility to in-home, professional certified caregivers can step in and take over the daily care for short periods of time.

A Path to Independence?

Respite care can provide another avenue of opportunity for caregivers and those under their care. A driving goal in the individual care community is to promote independence and self-determination for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities as well as for elderly who might be suffering from illnesses such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Providing individuals used to living under the care of a caregiver into a new environment and care situation that might challenge them to perform tasks they aren’t used to performing themselves might give individuals being cared for by a respite service confidence to try and do these tasks moving forward. It further exposes them to new environments and possibly to other individuals with similar disabilities or conditions who might be living in an independent living situation with limited oversight from service providers. If they experience this environment and see for themselves they are capable of caring for themselves and performing tasks usually handled by caregivers, it can give them the confidence and desire to move into an independent care living situation themselves.

A Living Arrangement For Every Occasion

Hands of Heartland is a licensed Nebraska-based care provider serving the Bellevue and Omaha communities. From small group residences to family or natural home services, Our respite care services and independent living programs are offered in a number of settings in order to provide the safest and most appropriate setting for our clients. Our professional staff can work with you or your loved ones to discover new ways of facing the challenges of independent living, with the goal to ultimately help those in the program discover how to live their best life on their own terms.

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