Consider how other people will be affected · 3.Communicate with care and compassion · 4.Our counselors help 300,000 families each year find the right senior care for their loved ones. If your parents need more help than you can provide and their needs are too great to live at home, your next option is a care center for the elderly. Lum says that, for example, if meals are delivered to the house, but the older adult can't prepare them, it's a sign that a senior center may be appropriate. Patience and persistence go a long way in making conversations productive when it comes to aging parents. Don't go with the expectation that everything will be resolved in one fell swoop.
You'll probably have to raise your concerns with your parents several times, so be patient. Bombarding the older person you love with too much information in a single conversation can needlessly trigger their fear of losing control. And if your loved one has dementia or cognitive impairment, they may not be able to take in too much information at once. In addition, if your parents live alone, a domestic assistant can provide you with the necessary support and care, including foster care.
When it comes to knowing what to do with an aging parent, turning to experts is often the best first step. If you are the medical decision maker (also known as a durable medical power of attorney) and you have taken the necessary steps to be able to access your parents' medical information, for example, through a patient portal, you can help coordinate requests for drug refills. Ultimately, even the most skilled family caregivers struggle to provide appropriate care and could benefit from the support of specialists who have dealt with similar situations. Many family caregivers end up feeling isolated, alone, and exhausted while caring for their aging parents.
If you're leaving your parents, you may have made enough preparations to care for your loved one, but you still feel like you're abandoning your loved one. I have been taking care of my father for more than 6 years and had to kick him out of my house the other day. Maybe your parents need a part-time home caregiver or 24-hour care in an assisted living facility, or maybe you just need more support from your siblings. during the week.
You'll also know that it's time to step in when your friends or neighbors tell you that your parents are struggling or when your parents finally have the courage to tell you that they need help. Once you've talked about your desire to change caregivers, you may, as a family, decide that your aging loved one needs more help than you or your siblings can provide. If all else fails, contact your parent's doctor and let them know that you care about your parents' well-being. Consider offering some practical options for what to do next when you tell family members that you can no longer care for your aging father or mother.
