When you live far away from your old parents, providing care for them can be an emotionally taxing and, at times, exasperating experience, but it can be even more challenging if you have to do it from a distance. When providing care for someone from a distance, you may frequently experience feelings of helplessness and confinement due to the physical separation.
Find out how you may help your parents if you live a long way from them and they are experiencing a decline by reading the guidelines. Below you can find some facts as well as some ideas. There are also many other resources available to direct you; nevertheless, we will assist you in grasping some of the complexity of long distance care and alleviate some of your anxieties here. There are also many other resources accessible to direct you.
Long Distance Care Statistics
To be called a long-distance caregiver, you must reside at least an hour’s drive away from the elderly parents who require your assistance and for whom you care.
According to data compiled by Caregiver.org, long-distance caregivers often reside approximately 450 miles away from the individuals of their own families whom they look after. This indicates that getting to the person you care about will take approximately seven hours of travel time!
How to help elderly parents from a distance
As is common knowledge, almost half of family carers (47%) who assist with their own parents’ needs report feeling higher emotional discomfort than family caregivers who live in close proximity to the elderly loved ones they look after.
They have to travel further to see their ageing parents regularly, contributing to the increased costs they face. In addition, they have a higher debt load. If your parents’ health continues to decline, it is only natural that these costs will rise a great deal higher.
Time spent with parents
51% of long-distance carers said that despite the average distance of 450 miles between them and their ageing parents, they still make it a point to see their parents at least several times a month.
Type of care offered
Roughly one quarter of long-distance caregivers reported that they were the primary or only provider of care for their loved one. They needed assistance with transportation, shopping, and managing their finances, and three quarters of those people offered their assistance. Approximately one day out of each week was devoted to the management of essential services by approximately half of them.
How it affects work
Almost eighty percent of those providing care worked either full or part time. Because of the issue, about half of the workers needed to change their work schedules. 36% of respondents said that they had to miss days of work, and 12% said that they were forced to take time off.
How it affects your finances
Caregivers who are separated from their elderly parents spend an average of $392 each month to support them, the most of which goes toward travel expenses. Those who lived between one and three hours away had monthly expenses that averaged $386, while those who lived more than three hours away had monthly expenses that averaged $674.
