As a family caregiver, it’s often easy to see when your senior could benefit from some extra help.
You might even know exactly how you want to help your senior, only to find that she doesn’t want any part of assistance. That can make things a lot more complicated and you and your senior might find yourselves at odds about what’s going on.
Take a Deep Breath
Pause if your elderly family member is resisting your help. Losing your patience now is going to make the situation worse and it may even be the start of your senior denying you access to her from here on out. That makes everything way more complicated. Let your senior know that you just want the best for her and that you’re trying to help.
Try to Understand Where She’s Coming From
What exactly is she telling you? If she’s giving you responses that are clearly just stubborn refusal, you know what’s driving this answer. But there are other reasons she might be turning down help and you may not have visibility to those. Try to really listen to what she’s telling you and ask her questions. There may be a lot more that you understand about your elderly family member’s situation after this conversation.
Make Sure You Understand Her Needs
Listening to your senior is the first step, and the follow-up step is to truly understand what it is that she needs. Your ideas might involve taking over some of the tasks that are getting difficult for her to handle alone, but what she actually needs might be different. Be open to listening to what your elderly family member wants and needs so that you can find solutions that actually meet those needs.
Explore Some Other Ideas
Compromise, might be the word of the day in this situation. Your elderly family member might be embarrassed or upset at taking up your time helping her, but she might be more open to having home care providers stopping by to help. Be willing to be flexible and open about these possible solutions so that you and your senior can both come away from the conversation feeling good about it.
You’re only one person. If you and your elderly family member are going around and around about this topic and you’re not making headway, you may want to step back for a bit and regroup.
If you or an aging loved one is considering hiring Elderly Care in Point Loma, CA, or the surrounding area, please contact the caring staff at Love 2 Live Care. Call Today 1-619-291-4663