Taking care of family members at home is a responsibility you have to deal with. Your elderly family members may be dependent on you if they are unable to perform basic chores and daily tasks. In such cases, the onus lies on you to support and help them.
If the elderly in the family have mobility issues or any other health issues, increased care and attention would be required. If the elderly in your family are able to perform the essential activities like cleaning, cooking, shopping, paying bills, then the need for a caregiver is less. However, taking care of family members at home, especially the elderly needs to be prioritized.
When a family member quits their job to take care of the elderly, financial stability gets affected in the family. Consequently, taking care of family members at home would be difficult when there is no income! So luckily, there are different programs that can help you earn while taking care of your dependent family members at home. Here’s a list of few of these programs:
- The NY State Medicaid CDPAP program: CDPAP or Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program is a Medicaid funded program that allows an individual to pick any caregiver, including a family member.
- Preparing a Family Care Agreement: While taking care of family members at home, one method to adopt is by getting paid by the state for caregiving. However, having a formal agreement among family members is necessary. It should state that the person caring for the loved one would get compensation if they had to let go of their job to care for the elderly.
- Veteran Benefits or Cash and Counseling (VD-HCBS): The VA offers eligible veterans a variety of support and financial programs such as the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers.
- Work from home: Working from home or freelance work needs skills and good internet connectivity. Taking care of family members at home will no longer be a financial burden when you can earn from the same. Though being a remote worker will not pay you to care for a family, working from home can help you pay for bills, medicines and other necessities.
- Settling life insurance policy: Taking care of family members at home can be a rewarding experience when life insurance policy pays for the caregiver. Settling life insurance policies can be one of the different ways to earn cash for helping family members. This would be a good option for individuals over 65 years of age.
Tips for taking care of family members at home
- Establish a daily routine.
- Write the chores or tasks somewhere where the elderly can easily see it.
- Create a budget considering all expenses including medical bills.
- Spend more time with the elderly to reduce the stress and loneliness they may experience.
- Take them for shopping, movies or somewhere else they wish to go.
- Motivate them to make friends during social gatherings.
- Cook for them if they are unable to prepare meals by themselves.
- Make modifications to their home so that they can move around the house with ease and quicker.
- Openly discuss finances so that they can assist you if needed.
- Help in taking care of any paperwork for them.
Keep them active by helping them move around or to do light exercises
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