Working from Home and Caring for Older Adults

Many professionals, including working daughters and sons, are currently operating under incredible stress. For those that don’t have access to professional health aides or are concerned about risks of exposure to coronavirus, taking on a larger role in caring for older adults has become a challenge.

Those providing front-line support to aging populations should be recognized. They should also have access to the resources they need to ensure they can reasonably maintain a healthy lifestyle balance.

Here are our top 3 tips to improve approaches to working from home while caring for older adults:

• Build a consistent routine where possible. By having regular conversations in simple terms with the seniors in your care, you can create a routine of engagement. Carving out time to communicate will ultimately help you get your own work done; you’ll have planned time set aside to connect so they won’t be as worried about disrupting your work day.
• Be transparent with your workplace. Take time to talk about your responsibilities with your coworkers and leadership. Without knowing about your home-life situation, those you work with won’t be well-prepared to support you. By giving them better insight into your situation, they’ll be afforded the opportunity to take what tasks they can off your plate.
• Take time and space to care for yourself. Caregivers are more likely than those in the general population to report they’re doing a poor to fair job at managing stress and getting proper amounts of sleep. You need to take care of yourself to be able to best care for anyone else. Taking breaks, getting outdoors and finding ways to otherwise slow yourself down will help you build up the energy to get through each day. Self-care resources are available to help you get started.

Finding a balance between your professional career and caregiving responsibilities requires ongoing adjustment and flexibility. Your routine won’t always go as planned and that’s okay.

Being a caregiver can at times seem like an invisible job. However, in the wake of the virus, an even greater need has arisen to protect our most vulnerable population. Those that are stepping up to the plate are doing admirable work.