How To Make Your Aging Parents Feel Comfortable With Carers
How To Make Your Aging Parents Feel Comfortable With Carers
(GUEST POST)
In time, your parents will need to face the reality that they can’t perform what their young bodies could usually do, and this could make them feel unstable and uneasy. With the help of a carer, it would certainly make things easier for you and for your parents to adjust. Sometimes, however, they might feel uncomfortable with the carer. Here’s how to make your aging parents feel comfortable with carers:
- Consider your parents’ choice during the hiring process
When looking for the right home care for seniors, you will encounter many agencies advertising that they have the best personnel over different states. But no matter how excellent their skills are in providing care for your aging parents, they won’t always be the right fit. Your old folks might not like how the carer carries themselves, or they might even plainly dislike the carer for no apparent reason.
This is the problem that most children have to face when they hire a carer without ever consulting their parents. It is, therefore, vital that you consider the choice of your parents or their preferences when it comes to hiring a carer. Here are some tips on how you could employ the carer who is best suited to your parents:
- Run background checks on how the care provider agency selects their carers. You can do this by checking if they administer drug tests and how often they administer these. You can also check if the agency does a criminal search. You can personally ask the agency or search online as some reviews indicate such. This tip is to ensure that the carer would be mentally and physically stable, and that your parents would be completely safe in their hands.
- You can consult the agency that you chose about the selection of the carer. During this process, it is essential that you voice out what your parents’ preferences are. You can even inform the agency of the illnesses of your parents so that they can narrow down on who they would assign to your parents.
- Some agencies even offer you to interview the carers who could potentially be assigned to your parents. You can include your parents during the interview so that they would have the chance to get to know the carer. It will also allow them to select according to their instincts.
- Help in forming a connection between the carer and your parents
The expert carer is likely to be trained in forming a connection between them and their patients. But if you sense that there is a personality clash between the carer and your parents, you can intervene by helping in establishing this bond so that the partnership will be successful. Thus, your parents will feel more comfortable around the carer. Just like how parents involve themselveswhen you’re unfamiliar with your surroundings and carer when you were young, you must also involve yourself during the fresh stage your parents and their potential carer are getting to know each other.
Take note that the first few days of care are somewhat the “getting to know” period and clashes can be frequent, so don’t be quick to decide if the carer should be replaced. A successful relationship between the carer and your parents takes time and a lot of patience.
You can help in forming the connection by acting as a mediator between the carer and your parents. You can ask them to exchange stories and past experiences. They might have similar past experiences and that, in turn, could potentially cause a bond to form between them.
A great bond between the carer and patient is a must for a successful relationship. Fewer clashes will happen and things will run smoother if they develop a great friendship, which will take a huge weight off your shoulders.
- Introduce more than one carer
Even if one carer is a perfect fit for your parents, you would still need to introduce another carer. You can use technologyto look for substitute carers by posting on the right social media platforms such as LinkedIn. This is because the regular carer might need some time off to spend time with their own family or to just relax and take a break for a while. In that case, a replacement carer will come in handy. It will be stressful for your parents to get to know another stranger again when they have already adjusted to their regular carer.
That is why, if possible, introduce both the regular carer and the substitute carer beforehand so that your parents will still feel comfortable even if it is not the regular carer who will address their needs to limit the stress they are having, which is very crucial at this point in their lives.
Conclusion
Your parents hold a very dear place in your heart because they have done their best to provide you with everything you need in life. That’s why when it’s time for them to need the help of their children, make it your obligation to also provide them with only the best comfort and care.