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How to Discuss Long-Term Senior Care Options with Your Loved Ones

How to Discuss Long-Term Senior Care Options With Your Loved Ones

Today, many aging adults in the United States will eventually decide to enter long-term care for the elderly. This decision is never made lightly, nor should it be. The decision-making is much less stressful and emotionally charged when the family is supportive, informed, and reassuring through the process. Each person should be involved from preliminary discussion to final decisions to the move into a senior long-term care facility.

Are you starting to have conversations with your aging parents or other loved ones and live in the Beaumont, TX area? If so, consider long-term senior care at Calder Woods, a Buckner senior living residence. Learn more by calling us at 409.407.7636 or filling out our online form.

What Is Long-Term Senior Care?

When your loved ones can no longer perform daily activities easily on their own, long-term care provides the support and services they need. From health to personal needs, long-term care can benefit aging seniors. Family members often offer long-term care in the home. However, senior residences provide superb support using the long-term care model.

Senior long-term care covers three basic needs:

  • Personal care, including activities of daily living such as bathing, grooming, eating, dressing, moving and transferring, and using the toilet.
  • Health-related care supports seniors with chronic conditions such as heart disease or diabetes. It can also help those who simply are frailer, less mobile, and more vulnerable to health setbacks.
  • Community-based care can include transport to doctor’s appointments. This can consist of meals and adult day-time care for seniors at home when caregivers are at work.

How to Have the Conversation About Long-Term Care for the Elderly

In many cases, the last thing an aging parent wants to hear is an adult child broaching the subject of a senior long-term care facility. Contemplating this move can bring up complicated feelings about diminished autonomy, loss of youth, reduced freedom to do things, lack of involvement and meaningful purpose, and becoming a burden. Approaching the conversation with compassion and an open mind is very important. 

  • Be brave – Ask your loved one to speak to you openly about long-term plans. Explain that it is just a first conversation, and you’d like to know what they’re thinking.
  • Involve the whole family – If you have siblings, be sure they can be there if at all possible. Then, you can listen to one another and move the conversation forward.
  • Talk in person – If possible, be face-to-face. If you can’t be together, use video chat or at least a phone call. It’s best not to talk about this significant life passage in an email or letter.
  • Don’t shortchange yourselves – Make sure you have plenty of time to do this the right way, so everyone is comfortable. If you have a meeting, swim meet, or appointment to rush off to, it might appear as if you don’t value this conversation as much as you surely do.
  • Listen – If you do all the talking, they’ll think you’ve already made up your mind.
  • Don’t patronize – Your parent or loved one may be frail and elderly. Still, they deserve respect and acknowledgment for their years of wisdom and experience.
  • Remember, they are the deciders – Having the conversation is key. The decision has to be theirs. Unless they are dealing with dementia and you have power of attorney, your aging loved ones still have authority over their life choices.
  • Guide and suggest based on research and empathy – Using facts and data may be helpful to a point but will not be persuasive without compassion. This decision may seem obvious and cut-and-dried to some, but to the person considering a move into long-term care, it may, at first, seem outlandish. Finding common ground is critical.
  • Acknowledge how hard it is – They have been in charge of their own lives for decades and had the vigor to get things done. Not being able to do that anymore is painful.

When It’s Time, Calder Woods Is Ready to Welcome You

Calder Woods in Beaumont, TX aligns with the Core Principles of Buckner Retirement Services:

  • Connection
  • Independence
  • Purpose
  • Security
  • Service

You can rest assured that these principles guide the compassionate care your loved one will receive. Calder Woods’ long-term senior care facility is beautiful and homelike. It offers services far beyond just those to manage daily living. Your loved one can experience a rich quality of life while being safe, taken care of, and surrounded by people who care.