Respite Care Services

Across Northern Virginia, there are families who understand the joys, heartaches and stress of caring for a loved one on a day-to-day basis. You may be taking care of an aged parent in your home, or driving over to help them every day so that they can stay in their home a little longer. You may be caring for a child with disabilities, which can bring both joy and exhaustion too. These family caregivers are true unsung heroes. But it’s also true that these family heroes need a break or their own personal resources will be depleted to the point where they are mentally and physically spent. This isn’t good for anyone in the family. That is why At Home Personal Care, with offices in Fredericksburg, Manassas and Warrenton provides skilled, compassionate respite care services especially for family caregivers so that they can take some time to refresh, regroup and rejuvenate. To find out more about our respite care services, contact At Home Personal Care today at (703) 330-2323.

What is Respite Care, and Do I Really Need It?

Respite care is a service that provides family caregivers a needed break of a few hours a week to take care of themselves. Our skilled, compassionate respite care service team can step in for a few hours a day or a few hours a week, depending on your needs, to provide excellent care for your loved one so that you can get some extra sleep, go to the doctor, get a massage, have lunch with a friend, or do something that helps you refresh and rejuvenate so that you can remain positive and healthy as you continue to provide loving care to your family member. This isn’t a luxury, it’s an actual health necessity. Why is this so necessary?

Family caregivers provide hours upon hours of loving service for senior members of their family, or family members with disabilities every week, usually on top of other responsibilities such as working and caring for their own immediate family. There are countless studies that clearly demonstrate that this incredibly precious service can take a very high toll on the family caregiver’s mental, emotional and even physical health. Research into the needs of family caregivers clearly demonstrates that:

• More than half of family caregivers display clinically-significant depression symptoms, and about half of these people have symptoms that are clinical markers for major depression.
• Members of the primary caregiver’s immediate family or social circle also feel this stress and depression, and it can negatively impact these extremely important relationships within the caregiver’s life.
• Caregivers also report frustration and physical health problems when the burdens of caregiving prevent them from seeking medical or emotional help for their own problems. In fact, the data shows that caregivers who undergo unrelenting stress have a higher incidence of pain, inflammation, headaches and even cardiovascular disease.
• They also often report a loss of a sense of “who they are” outside of what they do as a caregiver, which can spiral into depression and disruption of positive and necessary social relationships and scaffolding.

If any of these criteria feel all too familiar to you, then you are very likely in need of respite care services. Bear in mind, these are not signs of weakness at all. These are signs that you have simply been extremely strong and selfless for a very long time. You cannot continue to provide the joyful, loving care that your loved one needs if you have not taken the time to care for yourself and your needs, refilling your inner reserves of strength and health. Please contact us to ask about respite care services today if you’re feeling depleted. We can help.