Caregiver for elderly parents/ difficult times

[Jane_5060]

Hi

I am currently a caretaker for my parents who live in their own home about 25 minutes away. I am not there every day - but help out 4-5 days a week. My mother has moderate dementia at age 89 and my Dad is 92 with some general decline in mental abilities not uncommon for someone his age. He is still pretty sharp mentally but has some physical issues and feels stress over my mom, money and lack of help from my brother and his wife. The bad days are starting to outweigh the good. I try to do my best but suffer myself from severe depression and anxiety. Also, there just aren’t enough good resources to draw from where I live in terms of support, in-home care for them and emotional support for myself. I just need to work at it harder but have been doing this for awhile now and am losing energy and the grit to keep going. Finding good people to help for inhome care is an overwhelming task, not sure who is good, my parents don’t want it and it appears to be very expensive even part-time. There. I’ll leave it at that for now. I care about my parents very much. My Dad and I are best friends which can’t really last that long can it? Especially considering what we know is coming down the road for us all. Just trying to work on what I can do for them in the meantime to make the ultimate transition smoother and more comfortable if possible. Thank you for letting me share.

Jane

[ChristianElliott Partner]

Welcome to the community, and thanks for sharing. If you haven't already, Google "area agency on aging" for your county. They should offer case management support for family caregivers like yourself.

[Jane_5060 in reply to ChristianElliott]

I have. My brother has too actually. Not much support. But, maybe they are swamped. Getting to be a tough situation for so many but thank you so much! Your response is much appreciated and I know you care. My own personal physician told me I would have to really dig deep to find good help concerning my parents’ care. Have to keep at it. Thank you.