Supporting ageing parents comes with several concerns, but communication is at the top of the list. You're not alone if your elderly parents refuse to help: According to researchers, a whopping 77 percent of adult children say their senior parents are stubborn about adopting their advice or requesting help with daily duties.
How do you encourage your parents to accept help? Many children have suggested the choices to help their elderly parents improve their quality of life, and they've turned them down. Here, professionals of live-in care in Vancouver offered some practical tips that will make meaning to your life.
1: Understand their motivations
For almost everyone, ageing is a painful process. Many elderly people suffer from dementia or mental health problems such as anxiety and sadness. Learning how to speak with an ageing parent by including their feelings will allow you to communicate with them more effectively. According to overnight care in Vancouver’s experts pay heed to the following questions that you should ask to learn about your parents' behaviour:
- Is it habitual for them to behave in this manner?
- Are they concerned about losing their autonomy?
- Are they depressed or anxious?
- Do they seem perplexed, or do they have dementia?
- What are some of the things people might be afraid about?
2: Accept the situation
Despite the fact that you have your parent's best interests at heart, they are in charge of their own lives and care alternatives. It’s advisable to treat your parents mature or grownups. Moreover, this is a reality; but the childish behaviour of ageing parents prompt children to take their decisions. Hence, they lose freedom of taking decisions and result in frustration & poor connection.
3: Choose your battles
Stop urging that your parents should upgrade their phones, attend a fitness class, or perform other useful but non-essential duties in the long run.
Decide which concerns are most important and concentrate on them – at least at first. Concerns about your parents' safety, for example, should be prioritized.
But keep in mind that if you don't overload them with multiple worries at once, they are much more likely to take your issues seriously.
4: Don't beat yourself up
As discussed above, parents need to be considered grownups. So if they want to make decisions that are not in their favour, don’t beat yourself up. Be certain that you have an eye on them to combat mishappenings or any miserable uncertainty.
5: Treat your aging parents like adults
While it may appear as if you & your parents have exchanged roles at times, helping older parents who refuse help is easier when you recognize and appreciate them. When you start treating your ageing parents like mature, you're significantly more likely to obtain great results. This applies to both basic chores like reminding your parents to take their meds or assisting them in receiving diabetic treatment like overnight home care services' caregivers do.
By paying attention to the older parent's requirements, you can encourage them to take care of themselves with seriousness, and you never know they approve of having the home care service.