What Does A Gerontological Caregiver Do?

• Personal Care Caregivers provide assistance with bathing, dressing, personal hygiene, dental hygiene care, incontinence hygiene care, and ambulation. Personal care or 'hands-on care' is the defining feature of a care partner’s job. This clearly distinguishes their job from that of a maid or domestic servant. Rather than care for the home, their focus is care of the person.

• Errands and Transportation Caregivers can run errands or take the client where they need to go. They can assist with general shopping, picking up and dropping off dry cleaning, going to the pharmacy, as well as taking the client to doctor appointments, or the beauty shop.

• Transfers Caregivers can assist with transfers in and out of bed, wheelchairs, and Scooter chairs. They can also assist with transfers on and off potty chairs and bath tubs.

• Meal Preparation Caregivers can help with meal planning, keeping a running grocery list, grocery shopping, monitoring diet, meal preparation, cleaning-up after meals, and labeling and dating leftover food.

• Medication Reminders Caregivers can remind the client to take pre-set medications when it is time. Caregivers are not allowed to administer medications. They are typically pre-set by a nurse.

• Light Housekeeping Housekeeping is referred to as 'light' because it does not take precedence over the direct personal care. Caregivers can tidy the kitchen and bathroom, dust, vacuum, change bed linens, and do personal laundry.

• Companionship An important part of overall health is staying mentally active. Caregivers can help write letters, sort mail, clip coupons, maintain family scrapbooks, read the newspaper to the client, and discuss current events. For fun and mental exercise, caregivers can play board or card games, accompany the client on walks, plan visits and outings with the client’s friends, and work on puzzles and crafts. Caregivers can also take the client out to eat, to movies, and to attend religious services.

• Physical Activities According to the US Department of Health & Human Resources, regular physical activity can play a major role in improving many age-related declines in the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. Furthermore, physical activity often can prevent the need for medical treatment, or it can serve as an important adjuvant to medical treatment. Caregivers can play an important role in this process by incorporating stretching exercises, chair exercises, range of motion or prescribed physical therapy exercises when they are with the client.

• Respite Services These services are intermittent or regularly scheduled temporary non-medical care and/or supervision

provided in the person's home. Caregivers can perform these services, and they are very valuable

because they relieve family members from the constantly demanding responsibility of providing care.

They can include any number of the services discussed.

• Organizational Assistance Along with companionship, caregivers keep up with scheduled appointments. They can help keep a calendar of family and friends birthdays and anniversaries. Oversee home deliveries and help with bill paying, answering the door and phone, checking messages, and keeping a communication book.

• Supervision Caregivers partners can help family caregivers by keeping a log. This tool helps families monitor their loved one’s eating habits, medication usage, and health status when they cannot be there.