4 Ways to Help When Your Senior Loved One Resists Care

If you have an elderly loved one who needs more assistance, but who refuses care, you may be feeling very stressed out. At Home Personal Care understands and can help you help your senior loved one see the benefits of care, with love, compassion and understanding. Call us at (703) 494-3989 if you need help, and try the following 4 suggestions:

1. Let Them Talk while You Listen!

Often times, resistance to living assistance or home care services stems from misunderstandings about what those things actually are. Home care options today are much broader and more customizable than ever before.

So just listen to your loved one’s worries first. Ask them what troubles them, and don’t interrupt while they explain. As you come to understand their reasons and feelings, you can better address their concerns. Listen to understand, not just to respond or debate. Express love!

After they know that you understand their concerns, it’s your turn: explain some of the worries you have and why you think home care might help them stay safe, happy and healthy.

2. Share the Benefits

Understand that many seniors resist to home care at first because they don’t fully realize how it can help improve their quality of life and keep them independent longer. Benefits and features of home care are not the same thing! For example, having a home care aide come and help them with meal preparation a couple of times a week is a feature. The benefit is that your loved one has more time to relax, will be eating healthier and won’t have to worry so much about meal planning. Think about the concerns your loved one has and then share how home care services (which are many) can improve their quality of life.

3. Arrive at Common Goals

The more you listen to your loved one, the more you’ll realize that you probably have a lot of common goals; you may just have different ideas about achieving them. With those common goals in mind, discuss how home care can really help your loved one:

• Stay at home and not in an institution
• Maintain as much independence as possible
• Have a better quality of life (less stress and loneliness, more fun and companionship)
• Avoid loneliness
• Spend more time with family and friends
• Stay safe and meet health challenges quickly and effectively

4. Be Patient and Give them Time

It’s not easy to for anyone trust a new person to come into the home and help with things. So you can suggest your loved one ease into the idea with just a few hours a week at first, so they can get to know some of our caregivers and choose one or two they really connect with.

Listening with love, understanding and finding common goals can help your loved one feel less rushed, less pressured and more in control of the decision to accept home care. If you have any concerns about how to start the conversation, or if you have worries about health and safety, call our At Home Personal Care team today: (703) 494-3989.