Elderly Care Tips: Emphasizing Independence in Your Care Talks with Seniors

Elderly Care in Calgary

The purpose of any elderly care plan is to give your aging loved ones the highest quality of life possible while they age in place. Regardless of the physical, medical, cognitive, mobility, or emotional challenges that your seniors face, part of this goal should be emphasizing independence. Maintaining independence is vital to preserving mental and emotional health, and encouraging your parents to maintain a higher level of physical activity, supporting a stronger, healthier body.

Emphasizing independence is also an effective way of encouraging reluctant seniors to cooperative more willingly with the elderly care plan you put into place for your aging parents. Many seniors are extremely reluctant to give up their independence or to even admit that they need help for fear that they will no longer be able to live the lifestyle or quality of life that they want. By making it a point to emphasize maintaining independence in your talks about elderly care with your seniors, you can make your care journey with them much less stressful for everyone involved.

Use these tips to emphasize independence in your elderly care talks with your aging loved ones:

• Talk about physical assistance. Point out the physical challenges that your aging parents have been facing and how those could put their health and safety at risk. Make sure that they understand that this danger is what is actually putting their independence at risk, and that having an elderly health care services provider in the home can eliminate this risk and keep them safely and comfortably at home. Remind them that this physical assistance is customized to their needs and the care provider will only do what she needs to do, not try to take over tasks your parents can do independently;
• Talk about transportation. Many aging adults stop driving when low vision and physical challenges make it more difficult for them to do safely. Point out how many more activities they could enjoy if they had reliable transportation from a care provider. Emphasize how having this transportation could let them hang on to their independence by taking care of things such as doing their own grocery shopping or getting to their doctors appointments without having to rely on you to bring them;
• Let them make decisions. The ability to make your own decisions and have your voice heard in daily situations is a central element of independence. Give your aging parents this opportunity by encouraging them to make decisions and express their thoughts and feelings regarding the decisions you have made whenever you talk about an elderly care plan. Emphasize that the purpose of the plan is to help them stay active, in place, and independent, not to take away their independence, and encourage them to take an active role in forming their plan rather than focusing on resisting it.

Get in touch with the elderly care agency in your area to find out more about hiring a care provider who can help you to enhance your parents quality of life by supporting their goals for independence and autonomy in their daily lives.

If you or an aging loved one are looking for elderly care services in Calgary, contact the caring professionals at Qualicare Family HomeCare. Call today!