When you are the adult child of a parent that is elderly, you may start to feel as if the parental roles have reversed in a way. You may take on many of the caregiver responsibilities, for example. You might also start to worry a great deal about your parent's health and overall well-being. As such, you may have decided to bring up the idea of home health care to your parent, as a way to ease you of some of the caregiver burdens and of your worries and fears. Get to know some of the ways that you can best help your parent choose a home health care agency to help them in their daily life. Then, you can be sure that you handle such a delicate situation as well as possible.
Do Not Try to Force Home Care on Your Parent
Most adults, particularly seniors, are not always open to receiving help from any source. Adults prefer to be independent and often do not want to burden others with their struggles or problems. Because of this, you do not want to try to force home care on your parent. Do not approach the topic by telling them that they need someone to take care of them or help them. This will immediately make your parent argumentative and defensive.
Try to focus on the positives when bringing up home care. Say things like, "wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to worry about cleaning the house?" Or talk about how your parent deserves a break from some of the more annoying or difficult tasks of daily living. If you frame home health care as some kind of reward to your parent, they may be more receptive to discussing the idea and receiving help.
You could also just ask your parent what they would want help with or what they do not like doing around the house. By framing the conversation in terms of what could improve your parent's life (from their perspective), you will be opening up a positive dialogue about the idea of getting assistance.
Interview Several Agencies with Your Parent
You want your parent to ultimately feel like they are in control of their own situation. As a result, you will want to perform interviews for home health care agencies together, rather than choosing one for your parent. Before you interview the first agency, ask your parent what they want to know from the agencies. That way, you can be sure your parent's questions are answered.
Talk to your parent about what qualities they want from home caregivers. Then, you will both be on the same page when it comes to matching your parent with the right agency and caregivers. The more power you give your parent in this process, the better it will go and the less resistant to care they will be. They need to feel like they still have their independence and autonomy so that they are willing to let another person (or people) into their home and life.
Knowing these steps to help your parent choose a home health care agency, you can begin the process as soon as possible.
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