Part Time Caregiver For An 88-yr Old Woman With Dementia

Mom is 88 and a sweet, happy lady. She fell at home and fractured her left pelvis in three places, was hospitalized, transferred to rehab and fell out of bed a week later and fractured her right hip requiring surgery to insert a rod. She has recuperated from the surgery at two other rehab facilities and is due for discharge on 9/14. She will be moving in with me, her oldest daughter. I live alone, but my youngest brother who lives with mom and was her caregiver will be helping with her care. The posted schedule are suggested time slots in days when we will need someone. A recurring schedule can be set up once we get established. Mom has dementia but understands better than she can verbalize her needs. She will need encouragement to walk with a walker and will have a wheelchair available as well as other helpful equipment. She will be on hospice care so there will be medical services and some personal care available. She is not end-of-life but qualifies for hospice services due to her dementia diagnosis. This is a new situation for us with her and we will all have to learn together to develop a system that works best for her. Preparing meals for her during shifts will be required, clean up after her and yourself but no housekeeping expected. Will need assistance with getting to restroom (occasionally incontinent but mostly occurs when sleeping) and she does have a colostomy that may need changing on occasion, but mostly the family will take care of that. Bathing will also be a responsibility most likely at least one time a week as hospice will do least one time also. Entertaining her with conversation, singing songs or playing music, doing children's puzzles, playing memory games, and having her reading stories aloud helps retain her abilities to do so. She's cooperative and easy to get along with. I work full time and will work at home sometimes and my brother will be on site most days and or evenings, so we need one or more people to help fill gaps to give us both a rest. Our sister will come from San Antonio to help and another brother who lives in Temple. This will not be full time work, but I expect we will need about 20-25 hours a week, and some weekend work but maybe not every weekend. We are a work in progress, so be patient as we figure things out.