If you’ve ever come up against a brick wall when broaching the subject of in-home care with your aging parents, you’re not alone! Independence, pride, denial and fear are strong motivating factors, and resistance to accepting help is a natural and common response. There are steps you can take, however, to help seniors find peace with the idea of home health care. Try some of these tips from forbes.com:
- Bring in reinforcements. Rather than meeting one-on-one with your parents to initiate a discussion about in-home care, include other close family members and friends that your senior parents respect, who may provide a more objective perspective.
- Include doctor’s recommendations. Hearing the suggestion for home care from a physician may carry more weight and result in more careful consideration.
- Get the facts first. Gather and come prepared with information from a respected, professional home care agency (such as Nightingale Homecare) in advance of talking with your parents, and if they’re agreeable, arrange for an initial in-home meeting together.
Care.com offers some additional strategies to try:
- Start small. Before a major health need arises, try approaching the subject of hiring some help that’s often more palatable, such as a housekeeper, handyman, or driver. As needs change, it can be easier to add on to already established services.
- Ask – but also listen. Keeping questions open-ended allows your senior parents to share more of what they’re feeling. And, it’s equally important to actively listen and validate those feelings, with empathy, in order to build trust.
- Offer choices. Allowing your parents to provide input into decisions, such as times and days they might be willing to accept help, can go a long way in precluding feelings of loss of control and independence.
At Nightingale Homecare, we understand the challenges with coming to a place of acceptance that in-home care is needed for your elderly loved ones, and are dedicated to providing Phoenix Home Health or Private Duty care with dignity and the utmost respect for each of our clients. In fact, we hear time and time again from the seniors in our care (and their families) how much their quality of life has been enhanced through our caring and compassionate caregiving team. Our services are personally tailored to each person’s needs, and run the gamut from just a little help with housekeeping and meals, to skilled nursing, occupational, physical, and speech therapy, and social worker services and counseling. For top quality Phoenix home care, call on the aging care experts at Nightingale Homecare at 602-504-1555.
