Starting a Conversation: In-Home Healthcare and Your Parents
Starting a Conversation: In-Home Healthcare and Your Parents
Your parents were there to take care of you, which is why it can be difficult to take control and discuss your parents’ health as they age. Understanding How to Talk to Parents About Assisted Living can be crucial to maintaining a strong relationship. In fact, it may be one of the most important conversations you have with them, but it can also be uncomfortable. How do you engage when you don’t want to be upsetting or appear controlling?
In-home care is one solution that allows your older parents to remain in their own home and still get the care they need. It may be the best of all worlds when it comes to proper medical care and maintaining their independence as they age. Here are some ways to discuss the topic and encourage them to consider the benefits.
- Talk about health openly. To avoid uncomfortable conversations in the future, start talking about health before a real need becomes apparent. Start the discussion to help understand what your parents want with their long term care and what you can to do help facilitate it and make it go smoothly when a need does arise. Create a plan that will ensure everyone is happy and comfortable.
- Emphasize the help, not the care. When you do need to discuss in-home care with your aging parents, understand that your language and approach will help immensely with the acceptance. Rather than insisting they need medical care due to their age and health, position it as a helper who can anticipate their needs and work with them to ensure everyone comfortable and happy.
- Ask for their help in deciding. You shouldn’t take this burden on alone, and provided your parents are still cognitively able, they will want some input on who comes into their home to help. Show them the options available in your area and ask what they need or want in a caretaker. They can be a part of the decision making process, which will give them ownership over the care they get.
- Set aside a time to talk. If you find that your parents are in denial about their limitations, it can be difficult to find a way to discuss the next steps in their care. You can feel frustrated or your parents can become upset. One way to alleviate the tension with these discussions is to plan a time when everyone is calm and rested. Make sure you don’t have any interruptions. If things do become heated, stop the conversation and set up another time to talk.
Are you ready to talk about in-home health care? Contact Relative Care today!