The quality of care your senior loved one receives can have a significant impact on his or her quality of life, which means it’s crucial to hire a professional caregiver who can meet and live up to a certain standard and provide the care your loved one needs. There are many important factors to check for when screening caregivers. However, the 5 following traits are among the most essential for them to possess.
1. Patience
When it comes to senior care in KW, nothing trumps a healthy dose of patience. Stiff, aching joints and motor coordination challenges can cause some seniors to fumble with buttons and other closures for great lengths of time. Degenerative age-related diseases like Parkinson’s can also result in the development of slow and shuffling gaits. In addition to managing limitations in health, many seniors are just determined to do everything their own way. Providing consistently high-quality Kitchener home care requires caregivers to have an extraordinary amount of patience, along with a calm and understanding demeanor.
2. Strength
Professional caregivers in Kitchener, ON, have to be both physically and emotionally strong. In the physical sense, these individuals may need to help lift seniors who have difficulty bathing and dressing themselves. All caregivers should be strong enough emotionally to realize when they’re over their heads and need to seek outside guidance.
3. Dependability
Every professional caregiver needs to be reliable and consistent. As seniors become increasingly reliant on others to meet their most basic needs, caregivers often become the most important people in their lives. Aging adults and their families need caregivers who will show up on time, ready to work.
4. Adaptability
Good caregivers are entirely flexible. They know dispositions and care needs can change over time. Though they’re careful to maintain regular schedules for their elderly charges, they’re also adaptable enough to accommodate unexpected changes in mood, behavior, and abilities that sometimes throw these schedules off track. Being flexible also allows caregivers to continue providing an optimal level of care despite ongoing changes in a senior’s needs and abilities.
5. Empathy
A caregiver’s ability to both feel and express empathy is essential for providing the highest quality of care. Feeling empathy for a senior’s challenges can make it easier to remain patient at all times and deliver important services in a way that allows the senior to maintain dignity and confidence. When helping aging adults bathe, dress, and eat, empathetic caregivers are able to treat their clients exactly how they’d want to be treated if the roles were reversed.
At Home Care Assistance, having the necessary qualities and skills is just the beginning for our caregivers. We offer them continued training at our Home Care Assistance University, and we also provide a complimentary matching service to ensure the caregiver matched with your loved one shares similar interests and personality traits. In addition to live-in and respite care, we also offer comprehensive Parkinson’s, stroke, and Alzheimer’s care Kitchener, ON, seniors can count on. For more information and to schedule a no-obligation consultation with one of our qualified Care Managers, call (519) 954-2111 today.