Running a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly can be satisfying, rewarding work. You’re providing a service that many people absolutely need as they age. You and your team help seniors spend this key season of their life in comfort and dignity. And because humans will always be aging, there’s some measure of job security built in.
That said, the work is far from easy. As caregivers for people who likely need quite a bit of help, you and your team might feel burdened or worn down from time to time.
The Emotional Toll of Running an RCFE
One silver lining came out of the pandemic. It shifted caregiver burnout into the spotlight. Everyone stopped to think about the challenge of continually having to give your own physical and emotional energy to someone else.
As you and your team navigate providing the right care for your residents, challenges probably add up. That’s doubly true if you provide any level of memory care, since conditions like dementia can often cause residents to become surly and unkind.
Plus, beyond the demands of your residents themselves, RCFE owners have to contend with the family element of their facilities. In some cases, the resident may not even want to be there but the family has decided it’s the right choice. Or the resident may be with you voluntarily, but you might deal with complicated familial dynamics as their loved ones visit.
Beyond that, your residents’ family members likely have high expectations for the level of care your team provides. Your team strives to meet them, but it’s not uncommon for families to expect caregivers to work miracles for their aging loved ones.
Getting Peace of Mind Where You Can
Clearly, running an RCFE can come with a psychological burden. But it doesn’t have to keep you up at night.
With the right insurance policies in place, you can move toward the peace of mind that you deserve. You can’t control your residents, and you certainly can’t control their families. But you can put safeguards in place to protect yourself, your team, and your facility if an incident occurs.
Let’s say you have a resident who refuses to use their walker even though the doctor has strongly suggested that they should. If that person falls, you might be worried that their family could bring a negligence suit against your team. But if you have liability coverage in place, any expenses — from the cost of defending yourself to any settlement levied against you — can get covered.
Similarly, let’s suppose that one of your team members is experiencing burnout. They stop paying close attention and injure themselves on the job. With the right workers’ compensation policy, you can give them the medical care and recovery time they need without burdening your facility.
You don’t have to be on your own as you navigate the psychological burdens of running an RCFE. To get the right insurance in place to help yourself build in more peace of mind, call our team at (805) 413-5668.