Difficulty Adjusting to Change...

Illness and disability obviously causes changes in your health.  But there are other changes most people don't realize, or minimize.  In addition to changes in health status, there are other personal changes, like to your body or body image (surgery, scars, artificial limbs, parts of your body that don't work right), and emotional changes.  Also, there's changes made to your home (hospital bed, your room switched to the first floor, adding medical equipment or oxygen).    If your spouse leaves or friends drop away, or if it is too hard to go out of your home, there are changes to your daily social life.   Your employment may change, maybe forcing you into retirement or onto disability payments.   Maybe you can no longer drive and someone must drive you everywhere.  Your hobbies may be interrupted, or you might not be able to do those things again.  This list is a whole lot of "changes" to adjust to -- all at once!

 The irony in home care services is that the thing that is supposed to help you the most, can also cause more chaos and difficulties.  It is hard enough to cope with all the changes listed above, without also dealing with multiple changes in companies, or home care employees.   Companies can actually increase the chaos and stress you feel when they have staff or scheduling problems.  If you also get bad workers, that can increase chaos.  

Patients who have Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or other problems, are certainly not being helped by all this chaos!  But, even with a smooth adjustment into home care services, patients still must figure out ways to adjust to all the other changes!

Try to base your decisions on several things that are all about YOU, which are these:

What will help keep you safe?

What will help keep you as healthy as possible?

What will keep you as emotionally comfortable as possible?

What are you willing to put up with to get your basic needs met -- and what things won't you accept ?