{"id":125,"date":"2015-07-03T23:34:24","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T23:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/blog\/?p=125"},"modified":"2026-02-02T15:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T15:02:39","slug":"long-distance-caregiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/2015\/07\/03\/long-distance-caregiving\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-Distance Caregiving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2015\/07\/FullSizeRender.jpg\" alt=\"FullSizeRender\" width=\"189\" height=\"267\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-511\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When you have a sick or aging loved one, living just five miles away can feel like \u201clong distance,\u201d so what do you do if hundreds of miles separate you?<\/p>\n<p>After my husband\u2019s dad moved to Florida in the last years of his life, we learned the challenges of a long-distance relationship. We\u2019d call and get no answer for days in a row (usually because his phone had died), he\u2019d fall and we\u2019d hear about it later, and because we didn\u2019t see him on a day-to-day basis, it seemed like there was significant decline at every visit. We were lucky because Steve\u2019s sister lived just down the street from Dad, but we didn\u2019t always want to bug her with every paranoid fear that comes with living 1,000 miles away, and we felt incredibly guilty not being there to help.<\/p>\n<p>Long distance caregiving can take a pretty big toll on you emotionally but also professionally and financially if you\u2019re forced to take time off to care for your loved one. Here are some ways to make the distance a little easier for both of you to bear:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Develop a network.<\/strong>If you can\u2019t be there in minutes, establish a network of people who can be. When my father-in-law lived in Swampscott, he registered for a free service through the Nahant police department that would place an automated call to him every morning at the same time. If he didn\u2019t answer after two calls, they\u2019d notify us. (The Nahant police department still offers this\u2014you just have to contact the Swampscott PD.) Neighbors, friends, and clergy members also may all be willing to look in Mom once in awhile or share a meal with her. Encourage your mom to give a key to a few trusted people who could check on her if necessary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Gather all important documents<\/strong>, including legal, personal, medical, financial, and insurance documents. Legal might include powers of attorney, medical proxy, wills, and trusts.\u00a0Personal would involve a social security card, driver\u2019s license, marriage license, military discharge documents, and birth certificates. Before a crisis occurs, get a copy of all bank account numbers, prior tax filings, credit cards, sources of income (including Medicare and pensions where applicable), all assets and debits, and monthly bills. Medical information you should know includes insurance, doctor information, all medications, and the phone number and address for a local pharmacy.\u00a0 For insurance, don\u2019t forget medical, homeowners, car, and life insurance policies. Having all this on hand where you are can alleviate a lot of problems if something happens where they are.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Make your time together count.\u00a0<\/strong>A visit to Dad is a great time to observe how he\u2019s doing. Ask him to drive next time you go to the grocery store. Does he get easily confused? Are his reflexes good enough to be driving? See if you can accompany him to appointments with the dentist, eye doctor, family doctor and any specialists he\u2019s seeing while you are in town so you\u2019ll learn more about what\u2019s going on.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Check out the house.<\/strong> On your next visit, make sure Dad\u2019s house is set up to be safe. Does he have any loose carpeting or handrails that could cause a fall? Are there light bulbs that need to be replaced or smoke detector batteries that are inactive? Install grab bars outside the shower, a higher toilet seat if necessary, and buy a shower seat and handheld nozzle for the shower. You can also with the local fire department to install an emergency lock-box.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Use technology. <\/strong>If my mom can learn to use an ipad, so can yours. Tablets have changed the way we communicate with our loved ones of all ages. With a little help, your long-distance loved ones can learn to Face Time so you can see firsthand how they\u2019re doing. You might also consider a medical alert monitoring system.\u00a0 Some options include automatic fall detection (so the wearer doesn\u2019t have to push a button if they fall) and GPS locator service. Have your loved one list you as the contact person for these devices, so you\u2019ll be notified if something happens.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Molly Rowe owns FirstLight Home Care with her husband, Steve Rowe, and lives in Swampscott with their two sons. FirstLight provides non-medical in-home care to adults in Swampscott, Marblehead, Nahant, Lynn, Salem, Peabody, Danvers, Beverly, and Lynnfield. For more information and help caring for your loved ones in the comfort of their own homes, please visit FirstLight\u2019s website at <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.salem.firstlighthomecare.com\"><em>www.salem.firstlighthomecare.com<\/em><\/a><em> or contact Molly at <\/em><a href=\"mailto:781-691-5755\/mrowe@firstlighthomecare.com\"><em>781-691-5755\/mrowe@firstlighthomecare.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you have a sick or aging loved one, living just five miles away can feel like \u201clong distance,\u201d so what do you do if hundreds of miles separate you? After my husband\u2019s dad moved to Florida in the last years of his life, we learned the challenges of a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-salem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}