Adult children can find it difficult to talk to their elderly parents about their health or difficulties they may have taking care of themselves. It is an awkward conversation for many families, but it is a common occurrence. Depending on the individual, an elderly parent may acknowledge their difficulties while others may deny that they are having difficulty caring for themselves for many different reasons. They may be fearful of what a loss of independence means or they may take pride in being able to care for themselves while their peers have difficulty.
Why Home Care Would Help
No matter what their resistance is it is important to make specific observations to help an elderly senior see the danger in continuing to live on their own without some form of additional help. Some elderly parents may have memory issues that make it dangerous for them to cook or do chores like iron because of the risk of fire, while others may have fallen once or twice and barely missed serious injury. These types of observations can help the senior recognize that they have been lucky to escape serious injury, and that taking measures now to help them remain safe can prevent them from needing care in a nursing home or other medical facility in the near future.
Keep Elderly Parents Involved in Home Care Decisions
It is important to include elderly parents in the decision making process as much as possible. Explain all the various types of services non-medical home care provides. They may only need help doing one or two specific tasks around their home, but knowing that there are more services available that can help them ask for help if they need it in the future. It may also put them at ease to have a better understanding of the difference between medical home care and the non-medical care that they need. Also, allow them participate in selecting a care provider or home care agency. Non medical home care providers will be spending at least a few hours a week in the senior's home and it is important that they are not worried about the person or company that is going to spend that much time with them.
Discuss Alternatives to Home Care
Sometimes an elderly parent can be so resistant to receiving outside help it can be impossible to include them in the process or convince them of the necessity of additional help. This can be frustrating, but try to discuss what could happen if they continue to have the same difficulties. An elderly parent that has fallen a couple times will fall again and they have a high risk of being seriously injured. Seniors that fall are more likely to break a bone, and often need a longer period of recovery in a rehabilitation center. Six weeks in an uncomfortable medical bed may make a few hours of help a week much more palatable.
An elderly parent may need time to adjust to the idea of a stranger coming into their home. It is a new experience and families must try to be patient with seniors that do not agree with the decision to hire a non-medical home care provider. Helping them through the adjustment as much as possible is the most important part of helping them remain at home safely.
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