Home Care in East Lansing MI: Should You be Handling Your Parent’s Bills?
As a family caregiver you know that you have made the commitment to taking on a wide variety of responsibilities for your aging parent. The care tasks that you will be putting forth for them are highly personal and will need to be based on your parent’s individual needs, challenges, and limitations, as well as their goals for their lifestyle. As you are designing your loved one’s care approach it is important that you consider all types of tasks that you can complete for your parent to help them to handle their daily needs in the best way possible. One issue that you may wonder about is if you should start handling your parent’s bills. Many elderly adults struggle with cognitive functioning issues and other difficulties that make it harder for them to keep up with their finances, including paying their bills properly and on time. Stepping in to pay these can help you to feel confident that their finances are managed effectively and that they are not going to struggle with issues such as overdrawn accounts, identity theft, or other problems.
Some things to keep in mind when determining whether you should be handling your parent’s bills for them include:
• Have they overdrawn their account frequently in recent months?
• Do they have unpaid bill notices or warnings from their utilities that they are going to get cut off?
• Has your parent mentioned phone calls from people asking for money or telling them that they have not paid their bills properly?
• Has your parent mentioned that one of their utilities has been shut off?
• Has your parent tried to make a payment with their bank account or credit card and been declined because of insufficient funds?
• Have you noticed a variety of bills sitting around in your parent’s home that they do not seem to be opening or paying attention to?
If you are considering taking over your parent’s bills, talk to them about it. Be honest about your concerns and let them know that it would take stress away from them. Contact the companies and let them know that you will be taking over payment of these bills so that they can send the new bills to your home or email for convenience.
If you are concerned about your aging parent’s security and well-being, or simply believe that they would benefit from more diverse care and support, now may be the ideal time for you to consider starting home care for them. An in-home senior care services provider can create a highly personalized approach to care, support, assistance, and encouragement designed to ensure that your loved one gets exactly what they need to keep them safe, healthy, happy, comfortable, and engaged throughout their later years. They can also be with your parent on a fully customized schedule, meaning that they are there with your loved one when they need them, but you can still give them all of the care and assistance that you can or want to give.
If you or an aging loved one are considering home care in East Lansing, MI, please contact the caring staff at Seniors Helping Seniors of Lansing. Call today: 517-332-9953.