Seniors may have difficulty adapting to in-home care because they fear losing their independence, which is why family caregivers may have difficulty broaching the subject with an elderly parent. If you find your loved one is less than receptive to the idea of having help around the house, the following tips can help your loved one adjust to home care.
Create an Open Dialogue
If your loved one is apprehensive or even resentful of the idea of in-home care, it’s important that you understand why. Knowing why your loved one is resistant to care will help you support your family member during this transitional period in his or her life. People from older generations may have more difficulty being open with their feelings, so it’s important to make them feel safe by creating an open dialogue and learning why they’re resistant to home care.
Not every senior has the same care needs, which means they don’t all need the same type of at-home care. You can rely on Home Care Assistance to provide an individualized care plan to meet your elderly loved one’s unique care needs. Our holistic Balanced Care Method was designed to help seniors focus on healthy lifestyle habits, such as eating nutritious foods, exercising regularly, and maintaining strong social ties, and our Cognitive Therapeutics Method offers mentally stimulating activities that can stave off cognitive decline and delay the onset of dementia.
Keep Your Loved One in the Loop
One reason the process of easing a senior into home care can be so contentious is because sometimes caregivers try to make all the decisions. While you might mean well, this only makes things worse. Depriving your loved one of having a say in the process only compounds his or her fears of losing independence. Make sure to give your loved one an active role in the decision-making process to decrease his or her trepidation about home care.
There are a variety of age-related health conditions that can make it more challenging for seniors to live independently. However, many of the challenges they face can be easier to manage if their families opt for professional home care. Anchorage families can rely on expertly trained caregivers to keep their loved ones safe and comfortable while aging in place.
Begin with Part-Time Care
Some may see in-home care as an all-or-nothing service, meaning your loved one will need live-in care. However, this doesn’t have to be the case, nor should it be if your loved one doesn’t require live-in assistance. During the beginning stages of in-home care, your loved one may not need 24/7 supervision. By gradually incorporating hourly home care into your loved one’s routine, you can prepare him or her for more extensive in-home care should it be necessary down the road.
Living independently is important for seniors who want to maintain a high quality of life. For some, this simply means receiving help with tasks that have become more challenging to manage over time. Even when families have the best intentions, they may not have the time to provide the care their elderly loved ones need and deserve. If your loved one needs help for a few hours a day or a few days a week, reach out to Home Care Assistance, a trusted provider of respite care Anchorage seniors can depend on. We will work with you to create a customized home care plan that’s suited for your loved one’s unique needs. Call the Home Care Assistance team at (907) 770-0907 today.