You’re already offering a lot of help to your senior, but you really can’t do it all on your own. However, when you make the offer of hiring extra help, your senior may put her foot down. What can you do about it?
Get a Definition on “Help”
You know what you mean when you’re talking to your senior about having extra help around, but what does she mean? In her mind, “extra help” might translate as taking over, pushing her to the side, and her no longer having as much independence. If that’s not what you’re trying to do, you need to correct that miscommunication sooner rather than later. Spell out what you hope that elderly care providers can do for both you and your senior.
Ask Her How She Feels and Listen to Her
There could be some really valid concerns your senior has about accepting outside help. Even if those reasons don’t feel valid to you, it’s important that you genuinely listen to your senior. When you listen, that helps her to trust in your intentions and your decisions a little more and you might hear something that makes you pause. She might tell you that she’s worried that this is the first step toward shuffling her off to a long-term facility, for instance. That’s an important concern that you can address if you know it’s lurking as a fear for her.
Revisit or Formulate Some Goals with Your Senior
Does your senior already have some goals? If she does and you’re aware of them, it can be important to tie those goals into how elderly care providers can help her to meet them. But even if she doesn’t have any goals just yet, it can be equally important to sit down now and talk about what she wants to do and to accomplish in the next few weeks or even months.
Talk about How She’s Going to Meet Those Goals
Outlining those goals allows you and your elderly family member to plan out how she’s going to get from point A to point B. When you sit down and work out a plan with her, she might start to easily see for herself how home care can fit into those plans. She may be far less resistant to the idea than she was at first.
You might have to have this conversation more than once to get to a resolution. That’s not because either of you are doing something wrong, but it can take a while sometimes for each of you to feel heard. Also, this can be a big change for your senior, so it takes some adjustment time.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Home Health Care in Westwood, CA, please call Mom's Home Care and talk to our friendly, knowledgeable staff. Our number is 323-244-4789
