Are you pulled between providing care for your parents and being a mom, homemaker or career woman? You are not alone. Over 41% of baby boomers who have a living parent are providing care for them; either financial, personal care or both. The typical unpaid caregiver is a 46-year-old woman who works outside the home while providing an average of 21 hours of care a week.

Many boomers of aging parents have no idea where to begin looking for services, or perhaps even what the signs are that the time has come to hire a trained, experienced and screened Caregiver. Here are some behaviors in our older adults that you can be watching for: should be on the look out for:

• Getting lost repeatedly or frequent “fender benders” while driving
• Inability to keep self properly fed, poor nutrition habits
• Skipping or mixing up medications
• Stale, rotten food in the refrigerator or left out for an extended period of time
• Forgetting to pay bills, locate important financial, legal documents
• Not showing up to regularly scheduled appointments – lack of tracking time, schedule or day
• Poor hygiene, inappropriate dress for weather or occasion
• Falling occasionally, different unexplainable cuts, bruises, or change in sleep pattern

Because so many of us are going to be the decision-makers and primary Caregivers for our parents, now is the time is now to start preparing ourselves with the resources and support we will need. For more information on how to find a Caregiver or to begin gathering information for your aging parent, call us.