If you have a loved one in hospice care, you may feel stressed out, sad, or overwhelmed. The stress that comes with having a loved one in hospice care can be hard to explain to others, but it’s good for your mental health to try and connect with others and watch your own stress levels during this difficult time.
Here are a few tips to help manage stress when you have a loved one in hospice care:
- Find out where you can lessen your responsibilities. Whether it’s with work, home life, or both, take a quick, hard look to determine what you can do to save time while you have a loved one in hospice care. Can you work from home some days of the week? Can a family member or babysitter help with kids? Can you work with a pet sitter or a neighbor to walk the dog a few times a day? Look at where you can reasonably save yourself time and extra stress.
- Have some items stored together for you to use when you visit your loved one in hospice care. If your loved one is at a health facility and you’ll be spending more time there, have certain items ready to take with you, such as a phone charger, snacks, headphones, or anything else you use all the time. A little bit of preparation can help you stress less while you spend time with your loved one.
- Ask those in hospice care for support resources. Hospice care professionals can give you the details on support groups and ways to connect with others who have been in your shoes before. This can include both in-person and online support resources.
- Plan some meals in advance. If you usually prep meals for yourself or your family, now could be the time to step back from that responsibility so you have more time to spend with your loved one. There are many prepared meals available at the supermarket, or you could order in through any of the delivery apps. If you want to still reserve a small amount of time to cook, you’ll find dozens of quick recipes here, shared by Country Living.
- Make time for yourself a priority. This could be through regular exercise, seeing friends, or watching a favorite show. Doing these things may seem frivolous to you right now, but you need your downtime more than ever. It’s a definite stress-coping mechanism.
Call Secure Aging to Find Out How We Can Help Seniors With Care Management
At Secure Aging in Bradenton, we transform the weight of the world into a sigh of relief for our senior clients and their concerned family members. The mission of Secure Aging is to protect and preserve our client’s independence and dignity through careful and thoughtful financial and care management. As our clients age, it is their desire to remain independent and age with dignity. Our services protect our clients from talented con artists looking to exploit and deplete the financial resources of our vulnerable seniors. Secure Aging helps families in Manatee County and Sarasota County and in and around the communities of Anna Maria, Bradenton, Bradenton Beach, Ellenton, Holmes Beach, Lakewood Ranch, Longboat Key, Myakka City, Palmetto, Parrish, and Sarasota. Call us at 941-761-9338, or visit us online at www.secureaging.com.
