Advice With Supporting Ageing Parents

We recently met up with Linda Raddon, founder of Happier Later Life. As Linda puts it, she champions family carers of elderly parents with practical tips for support, life balance and finding pockets of joy for themselves! Linda encourages people to think about their own later life too. She shares weekly blog posts full of practical tips, relatable stories from her own caring journey and small ways to lighten the load, particularly with the admin.

We met up to talk about what we do – Linda’s focus is on the children of our clients, giving them tips and advice which she herself has found helpful as she supports her own father, who is in his 90’s. And at Home Instead, our focus is with our clients, ensuring that they receive the best support and care, be that companionship, home help or personal care as well as providing peace of mind for families that their loved ones are being well cared for in their own homes.

There’s a strong link between Linda’s service and our Care Conversations campaign, where we outline key behaviours to look out for that may indicate a loved one needs additional support. We talked to Linda to find out her story, which is very familiar to that of many of our clients families, and she came up with some great tips we thought we’d share.

Those of us supporting elderly relatives know there is a lot more to it than providing day-to-day care. There is a lot of invisible admin and chores involved that we need to try and keep track of.

Linda told us: “For the last five years, I’ve been in a supporting role for my dad. He’s 94 this year and still living independently. People are amazed at that fact and he is remarkable, but it can only happen because there is a lot going on behind the scenes.

At the start of 2025, I realised something important: a lot of what I manage for him was just… in my head. How often do we go for an ENT appointment? Which chiropodist does he use? What size are his slippers? So, I did something simple. I bought a cheap week by week diary (£2.50 from a supermarket) and decided to write it all down, as I went through the year.”

Linda began by jotting down whatever came up: information about appointments, tasks completed and still to do, when he felt unwell etc., much like how we support our clients through our electronic care management system. We log all completed tasks, along with observations and comments from our Care Professionals at the end of each visit. This information is instantly shared with the client’s Care Manager at the office, ensuring they stay fully informed as well as being shared with the clients family, helping them stay connected and up to date on their loved one’s daily well-being. So we agree how helpful this note taking and reference checking is.

Linda also has any emergencies covered by sticking an envelope inside the front cover of the diary. It holds a small amount of paper money, for lunches or haircuts, as her dad doesn’t always realise when he’s running short. Linda has found it helpful to have that emergency cash at hand, just in case.

“I’ve also started making little notes before a visit. Things I want to talk to him about – maybe a birthday card to write, a reminder about an upcoming appointment, or simply some family news to share. If I don’t write it down, I’ll forget then think of it halfway home! And there’s usually a to-do-list for him that I bring home. Items to buy, meds that are running low, household jobs I’ve spotted that need doing soon. I pop it in the book so I don’t forget, and I don’t have to carry it all in my head.”

We are so aware of the position many people are in – supporting older parents, still looking after children or teens, all this while holding down a job or running a business and the usual household responsibilities we all have (there’s always something that needs fixing at home!). Our busy lives mean that tips and advice on making things easier are invaluable. By joining Linda’s community and staying up to date on posts and blogs is a great way of staying on top of things and feel organised. And, of course, we at Home Instead are also here to lend that helping hand and take some of the pressure and responsibility from you, enabling you to spend real quality time with your loved one.

If you’d like to find out more about Linda and Happier Later Life, go to Happier Later Life or email Linda directly at linda@happierlaterlife.co.uk

Image : Linda and her dad, Jim.