Sometimes aging adults don’t want to talk or can’t for one reason or another. Learning more about how to communicate with them in a way that doesn’t pressure them or make them feel as if they don’t have autonomy is an important tool family caregivers can use. Senior home care providers can help families improve their communication while they also offer hands-on assistance to meet seniors’ needs.
Hold Onto Patience
Even if seniors have trouble talking, continuing to talk to them makes them feel included and as if they still matter. If it’s frustrating, that’s normal. But family caregivers need to hold onto their patience while they try to work through various situations. Elder care providers can offer some of their expertise to help family caregivers remember to allow seniors time to process conversations.
Use Body Language
Non-verbal communication can go a long way when helping aging adults. Seniors may use body language and facial expressions to communicate their needs and wants, even if they aren’t talking. Taking the time to learn the signs that indicate various needs reduces frustration and allows family caregivers to feel more confident while helping seniors.
Minimize Distractions and Keep Things Simple
Senior home care providers can help family caregivers simplify communication and streamline instructions. This can help a lot when seniors are overwhelmed with communication or can’t ask clarifying questions. Distractions like excess noise can make it even more difficult for seniors to hear questions or instructions when they need them. These types of distractions can be painful or frustrating for seniors, depending on the types of issues that they’re facing. Neurological conditions like dementia, for instance, can leave seniors reacting differently to distractions than they did in the past.
Stay Flexible
Every caregiving situation has good days and bad days because that’s part of life. Maintaining patience and trying to limit minor misunderstandings can help a lot. Flexibility and a willingness to adapt are important parts of helping seniors to share information with friends and family in the ways they’re able to continue to communicate. Flexibility in every aspect of caregiving allows family caregivers to address challenges as they arise and take the good days when they’re there.
Practice Solid Communication
Regularly talking to seniors can help them maintain or even re-engage with talking. Physical or neurological issues, like dementia, aphasia, or physical issues related to speaking, may keep seniors from talking. But if they’ve made a conscious choice to stop talking, they may decide to do so again. When they know that the people they love are still there waiting for them to communicate verbally, they may be more likely to make that choice.
Communicating with seniors can feel complicated, especially when something big like no longer talking happens. Senior home care providers can lend their experience to family caregivers who are trying to cope with these changes. Seniors can still communicate their needs and wants in other ways, and experienced assistance ensures that family caregivers are prepared to tackle that challenge.
If you or an aging loved one are considering senior home care in Darien, IL, please contact the caring staff at Suburban Home Care today at (630) 964-9000.
There are several great reasons why Suburban Home Care® should be your choice for quality homecare. All of our Certified Nursing Assistants and Home Health Aides are screened, trained, bonded and insured.
Every family needs to be aware that almost every Homeowner’s insurance policy specifically excludes anyone working within your home. If the person you hire becomes injured while working for you, you will become personally responsible for all of their medical bills. This has left several families very vulnerable when their caregiver injured themselves at their home.
The potential to lose everything you have worked so hard to achieve seems an unnecessary risk. Every one of Suburban Home Care®’s employees are completely covered by insurance so you and your loved ones can relax knowing that if something unforeseen happens to your caregiver, they are completely covered by insurance.
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