Seniors Caring for Seniors
As the demand for senior care services increases across the country, more and more families are finding a supportive lifeline in older caregivers – who are sometimes nearly the same age as their clients.
The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, a nonprofit advocate for America’s workers caring for the elderly and disabled, projects that by 2018, 29 percent of direct senior care providers will be age 55 and older. Many seniors are drawn to work in elderly care to supplement their retirement income despite the physical demands and risk for injury.
Hiring older adults as professional at-home caregivers has numerous advantages including:
- Personal knowledge of the aging process. Because of their own adjustments to aging, senior caregivers can relate to the health changes and emotions their elderly clients are experiencing. Older caregivers understand common aches and pains of aging, which makes them better equipped to care for the older men and women they serve.
- Years of work and life experience. Many older at-home care providers have weathered decades of financial, family, career and health challenges, which equips them with invaluable flexibility and resolve. Life-tested seniors are more adaptable and composed than their younger counterparts in handling on-the-job difficulties and unexpected client care issues.
- Dependability and commitment. Older adults model trustworthiness in consistently showing up for work on time and completing assigned tasks. Reliability is a trait of senior caregivers that increases their “I’m-here-for-you” relationship with elderly clients and their families.
- Common-age relational skills. Older loved ones often enjoy reminiscing about their lives and milestone world events. Seasoned in conversing and listening, senior at-home care providers build a natural rapport and genuine friendships with their elderly clients.
Right at Home welcomes qualified older men and women to extend our RightCare model of professional and passionate in-home care to other seniors. Are you one of them?
What advantages do you see in older, more experienced caregivers caring for fellow seniors?
