Four Ways to Help Your Senior Adjust to Home Care Providers

Adjusting to new situations can be difficult for some aging adults. One particularly difficult adjustment can be learning to accept the help of elder care providers. There are some things you can do to help her to feel more comfortable.

 

Home Care in Bay Minette AL: Adjust to Home Care

Home Care in Bay Minette AL: Adjust to Home Care

 

Limit Time at First

If you introduce a new experience to your senior and the initial experiences last for long periods of time, she might be more resistant. It’s a good idea to start out with an hour or two a week for home care services to stop by. This can give her a chance to slowly grow more used to having someone new around.

 

Start out with General Tasks

When elder care providers are there with your senior, it might feel more comfortable for her to see them helping out with general tasks. Light housekeeping, laundry, and other tasks that aren’t personal to your senior can be a little easier for her. As she gets more accustomed to having help, she may be open to allowing someone to help her walk, for instance. Starting out with really personal tasks, like bathing or toileting, can be incredibly embarrassing.

 

Be Deliberate and Slow with Changes

As you do make changes to what home care providers do and don’t do, make sure that you’re paying attention to how well your elderly family member has handled the situation thus far. Slower and more deliberate changes are going to go over better than sudden changes. If you rush things, you can run the risk of having your senior turn down the help you’ve worked so hard to get her to accept.

 

Focus on How this Helps You

One way you might be able to get through to your senior is to focus on how this helps you to be a better caregiver for her. Let her know that you’re able to get more done and that you feel much better knowing that someone is with her when you can’t be there. You might also want to explain what respite care does for you so that she understands that you’re more relaxed and rested when you come back from those small breaks.

As your elderly family member begins to see some benefits to having elder care providers around, you may find that she instigates some changes herself. She may be willing to encourage assistance with more personal tasks, for instance, or she might suggest longer periods of time that home care providers are around.

If you or someone you know needs Home Care in Bay Minette, AL, please contact the friendly caregivers at  Hughes Home Care.

We provide quality and affordable care for your elderly loved ones in our community. Call Us Today 251-517-9901.  Serving Mobile & Baldwin County.

James Hughes