At some point it becomes obvious that your senior needs a little more help than maybe you or other family members can offer. If your elderly family member is resistant to the idea, however, that makes everything a little bit more difficult. Here are some tips for helping her to come around to what you’re trying to do.
Timing Matters, but Sooner Is Better
If your elderly family member has experienced an emergent situation, like a fall or some other serious health issue, then you may not need to worry about choosing the right time for a talk like this. When that isn’t the case, you may feel as if you have to choose your opening carefully. That’s especially true if your senior has been openly upset about accepting help in the past. The truth is, though, that talking about this issue sooner rather than later is really important.
Talk about What Your Senior Needs
Make sure to focus primarily on what your senior needs. If she’s new to having assistance from anyone, she might not have a true idea what she needs. Get to know your senior’s daily activities and what is becoming more challenging for her. When you can drill down to what’s creating issues for her, it’s a lot easier to show her how senior care at home can help her.
Offer Reassurances about What Home Care Isn’t
Lots of times family members worry that this type of care is about quickly moving her to another living situation or taking away her ability to make choices about her life. It’s important to reassure your senior that this isn’t the goal. When she understands what you’re trying to do, it’s going to be a much easier conversation for both of you.
Listen to Her Concerns
Your senior’s concerns and fears are valid, even if they’re not entirely accurate. You may find that it is helpful to offer her validation for how she is feeling and listen closely to her individual concerns. From there, it’s a lot easier to show her how senior care at home can meet her needs without causing those fears to become reality.
Don’t Give Up
In the end, you need to not give up. It’s okay to postpone getting extra help for a short time if your senior is still not convinced. But if you give up, that puts more stress and strain on you and on your senior. Offer alternatives, like a trial run for a short period of time, that enable your senior to experience what elder care can do for her on a regular basis. Once she sees for herself that her concerns are not warranted, it can be easier to make progress.
Needing help is something that makes people human. It isn’t a moral failing or anything to feel bad about at all. If your elderly family member is worried that having help is going to be a bad thing, then that’s going to make it so much more difficult for her to accept. Work with her to get to the bottom of those concerns.