Talking about home care with your elderly family member might not feel like an easy conversation and that’s for good reason. The very idea can bring up strong emotions for your senior that she needs time and compassion to work through.

Keep Your Senior Involved in the Decision

If you’re starting out your talk about elder care with a lot of information and with your plans, that might just backfire on you. You do definitely need to do some research, but it might not be the best idea to do too much on your own. When you make this a group effort with you and your senior both participating, it’s less likely that she’ll feel this is a decision you’re forcing onto her.

Start out with Lighter Needs

As with what you’ve learned about elder care, you might not want to lean on the parts of the service that might feel scariest to your senior. Hearing that someone can help her to get dressed might feel intimidating for her, especially right out of the gate. What can work a lot better is to lead with general services that elder care can offer your senior. Things like meal preparation are a lot less likely to feel invasive.

Move at Your Senior’s Pace, if Possible

Let your elderly family member know that she’s able to control the pace a bit. Her life may be changing at a rapid-fire pace in other ways, such as with her health, but this is something she may have a little more say in. If she feels comfortable with the entry-level assistance that she gets from home care providers, she may feel more comfortable allowing more help.

Remember to Compromise

You might feel at times as if you’re making progress and then your senior backtracks a bit. That just means that she’s trying to adjust and you’re going to need to leave some room to compromise a bit. If you’re letting her have a little more control and a little more participation, those times when you seem to lose ground may wind up fewer and farther between.

Elder care can do so much to help your senior and can help you to do even more as a family caregiver. But if your elderly family member isn’t excited about the same things that you are, you’re more likely to feel resistance from her. Trying some of these ideas can help quite a bit.

If you are considering elder care in Memorial, TX, for an aging loved one, please call the caring staff at At Your Side Home Care. We will answer all of your senior care questions. Call today: (832) 271-1600.

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Donna Wrabel, LMSW

Co-Owner at At Your Side Home Care

For most of us, the word "home" evokes warm feelings of comfort, security and well-being. For older adults, home also means holding tight to cherished memories and maintaining self-esteem and independence. When illness, injury or age make life a little more challenging, remaining at home in a comfortable, familiar environment encourages recovery and enhances the quality of life. Home can be defined as a private residence, an independent or assisted living facility or even a short term stay in the hospital, we recognize the additional benefits provided by a personal, professional assistant.

Our Certified Nurse Aides, 24-Hour Live-in Assistants and Home Health Aides are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We also provide the security and confidence of 24-hour Telephone Assistance, so fast, reliable help is always available when it's needed. To learn more about our homecare services see our homecare services page.

Different people need different levels of homecare. To meet the requirements of our clients, At Your Side Homecare maintains consistent staffing levels of caring professionals. Homecare service is available for as little as a few hours a week, or as many as 24 hours a day, seven days a week

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