Five Tips for Having the Tough Conversations with Your Senior

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Sometimes the conversations you have with your senior around her care are really difficult. How you approach these talks can help a lot, even if changing your approach doesn’t win her over completely.

Home Care Scotch Plains NJ - Five Tips for Having the Tough Conversations with Your Senior

Home Care Scotch Plains NJ – Five Tips for Having the Tough Conversations with Your Senior

Don’t Bring Blame Into It

No matter what, these difficult conversations aren’t about assigning blame. You don’t want to try to make your senior feel bad for the health issues she’s having or for needing more help than she needed in the past. No one has to be at fault for you to be able to find solutions.

Back up Your Suggestions

There are reasons for the solutions you’re suggesting. Keeping them to yourself doesn’t do much good. If you’re suggesting options like hiring home care providers to drive for your senior, it helps to have your reasons lined up. For instance, her doctor recommended that she stop driving and she’s collected more than a few tickets recently. All of these are supporting pillars for your suggestion to let someone else drive.

Your Senior Deserves Choices

It’s entirely possible that you do know what’s best for your senior. But if you’re unilaterally making decisions for her, that’s more likely to be rubbing her the wrong way. She deserves to be able to weigh in on these choices, particularly because they do impact her daily life. Remember, though, that just because you’re giving her a choice that doesn’t mean your senior will choose what you want.

Someone Else Might Have a Clearer Perspective

If you and your elderly family member really disagree about some of these ideas, you might need to work with a neutral third party. Someone else in the family or even a counselor or therapist you both trust can be that option for you. Sometimes your senior just needs to hear from someone else that your ideas make sense.

When You’re Right, You’re Right

In the end, you’re the caregiver for your senior. You’re there to do the best job for her that you can do and sometimes that means that you need to stand your ground when you’re making important decisions. You might not be making a popular decision, but if you’re positive it’s the right one, you may need to push through.

Remember that this is about taking the best care possible of your senior. She may not appreciate you pushing her to talk about difficult subjects, but she’ll definitely benefit from these talks.

If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring professional Home Care  Services in Scotch Plains NJ, please talk to the caring staff at Generations Home Health Care today. Providing Home Care in Somerset, Essex, Union, Morris and Hunterdon Counties. Call us today at (908) 290-0691 or (973) 241-4534.

Susan Myer, RN, BSN, CCRN, CDP