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Bad Weather

Solutions To Your Caregiving Situations Throughout Your Caregiving Years

Your Bad Weather Back-Up Getting Your Care Recipient Help When Bad Weather (or Distance) Gets in the Way You watch the snow build from your office window. Or, you watch the storm clouds roll in--you know another doozy is on its way. You’re supposed to stop at your mom’s house on your way home from work. If you stop to help her, you wonder how you’ll ever make it home. If you don’t stop to help her… When bad weather comes between you and your care recipient, consider these quick tips: Check with your care recipient's physician and specialists for suggestions on how to ensure your care recipient is safe during weather emergencies. If your care recipient receives care from a home health aide hired by a home care agency, check with the agency’s director to determine its protocol during snowstorms. If an aide can’t make it to work, will another be assigned? What other options are available? If your care recipient relies on important regular treatments (dialysis, chemotherapy, wound care, oxygen delivery), work with the service provider to create a safe back-up plan. If you’ve hired a home care worker privately, be sure to create a back-up plan if the home care worker must cancel because of weather conditions. (Use this back-up plan year-round, if your home care worker becomes ill, quits, or just doesn’t work out.) If you have family in the area and they regularly help, create a “tag team” system that you can use during a weather emergency. Determine which family member will stop at your care recipient’s home, which family member is the back-up and how communication between the “tag team” will occur. Keep extra caregiving supplies (incontinence supplies, over-the-counter medications, medications, canned goods, frozen meals) and extra boredom-fighting supplies (books, videos, puzzles, crossword puzzles, stationery) on hand at your care recipient’s house and at your house, just in case. Create a space in your care recipient’s house for your own personal supplies (a change of clothes, toiletries, medications) that you may need in case you must spend the night. Use online services to order medications and food for delivery to your care recipient’s home. Check with your care recipient's town and county about assistance they offer to homebound frail older adults during weather emergencies. You can call the ElderCare Locator at 1-800-677-1116 for a referral to the Area Agency on Aging in your care recipient’s community. Ask neighbors of your care recipient if they can pitch in by stopping to check on your care recipient. Let them know how they can reach you in case of an emergency. Hire teen-agers in your care recipient’s neighborhood to shovel. If your care recipient lives in a rural area or has a long walk to the mailbox, check with the local post office to ensure that mail delivery occurs at your care recipient’s front door. If you work, check with your employer’s Work/Life benefit and Human Resources department to learn about your options if you must miss work to stay home with your care recipient. Check with current services that you use (adult day centers, Meals on Wheels, volunteer programs, phone check-in programs, senior centers) and ask about their protocol during a weather emergency. Ask for their suggestions to fill any voids in care. What tips and suggestions have you developed to ensure your care recipient receives needed care and treatments--regardless of the weather? Send your thoughts to Denise. When Housebound, Make In-House Activities Work for You Tell a friend about this article:

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