3 Tips for Traveling with Home Care Services

If you are planning on traveling with an elderly individual who relies on home care services, you need to take certain things into consideration. First of all, any assistance that the elderly individual will require on this trip. Depending on how you are traveling, you may need to contact various organizations to check on their policies ahead of time.

Below are three tips to help you travel with someone relying on home healthcare services.

Be realistic.

Not everyone is going to be able to do everything they used to do. If your elderly loved one has limitations with regard to their health or physical capabilities, you need to be realistic. If they are physically unable to fly, for example, then no amount of accommodation is going to make this more plausible.

The same goes for traveling by car. If the elderly individual has trouble sitting for a long period of time, then traveling a long distance by car is not likely going to do anything good for them. Temper your expectations and make plans according to their abilities.

This could mean breaking up a trip over several days.

Have the right support system in place.

If the in-home care provider is willing and able to travel with the elderly patient, then this will be a great asset. Make sure that you never expect the caregiver to pay for his or her own travel or even their own meals. Remember, this trip for them would be a working one. It may be a vacation or family get-together for you and the elderly patient, but the caregiver is only going on this trip to provide support for the elderly individual.

If the caregiver is not able or willing to travel, find out if there is a home care services agency in the destination city that can provide the proper level of care.

Plan for emergencies.

Any time that the elderly individual is leaving home, there is going to be a risk of an emergency situation arising. Make sure that you plan properly for these possibilities.

No one really wants to think about an emergency situation, but when you are unprepared for it, especially if you are on the road or on an airplane, it can make the emergency even greater.

Have a first aid kit and a fully charged cell phone available to contact local authorities and emergency personnel if needed. The more prepared you are for traveling with someone who requires home care services, the smoother the trip will be.