What to do When Your Siblings Won’t Help You
If you are the sole family caregiver for your senior parent or loved one who is at home, you understand the immense responsibility that comes with the job. Often thankless, it can lead to stress, lack of sleep, and anger which can compound quickly and lead to a deterioration of your body and emotional state as well.
When a family caregiver has siblings or other capable family members that don’t offer help, it can add to the already stressful situation and cause tension and frustration and resentment in the family unit.
There are many reasons that family members have for choosing not to help or being unable to do so, but it doesn’t make it any easier on the person who has to care for their senior parent alone.
If you are in a situation where you are unable to receive any familial help with your senior parent or loved one, here are a few steps that we recommend:
Home Care Services Clifton VA – What to do When Your Siblings Won’t Help YouCall a meeting
If at all possible, call a family meeting where all siblings or appropriate family members can be involved. If some members of the family unit can not be present, technology makes it easier than ever to have a face to face conversation so utilize that so that there are no excuses for anyone being left out.
Let your family know exactly how you are feeling and be open and honest about asking for help. If no one can commit to helping out on a regular basis, ask for someone to step up and allow you a short break that you need and deserve.
Talk it out
It is important that you not bottle up your feelings if you are experiencing mental stress due to your caregiving situation. Seek the services of a therapist or counselor so that you can talk about what you are going through and get the help of a third party to help discover other options for getting help.
Get support
There are support groups online that you can join so that you can socialize and vent with other family caregivers just like you. It helps to know that you are not alone and that there are other people caring for their senior parents who are feeling similarly to you and may be able to offer tips or ideas on dealing with your problems.
Hire help
Lastly, If you cannot seem to get help from your family when you need it the most, consider hiring professional caregivers from a home care services agency to come in and assist your parent so that you can take a break.
Home care services providers are highly skilled and trained to help with things such as medical care, grooming, shopping and meal preparation, as well as light housework. If you need a little time to do your other responsibilities, or even just some time to take a nap, hiring home care services aides can give you the relief that you need so that you can be the best version of yourself that you can.