Conversations about your senior’s final wishes are not easy to have. There are the emotional difficulties involved in looking at the end of your senior’s life, but you might also be encountering resistance from her.
Keep Trying
The first thing to remember when you’re talking about end-of-life wishes with your elderly family member is that you have to keep trying. It’s highly possible that she’s going to want to put off the conversation or derail the conversation entirely. This is normal because these are often very difficult topics and they might even be painful for your senior to think about.
Choose Your Timing and Place
There’s a time and a place for everything as the old saying goes and that’s especially true for these types of conversations. If your elderly family member is already upset about something or she’s otherwise not open to this talk, don’t try to bring it up just yet. You’re looking for a situation that is free of distractions and that doesn’t involve an already agitated senior.
Look for Easy Entries
You want to look for easy ways to broach these topics. If the conversation is too obvious or too stilted, your senior may not want to join in. When these end-of-life conversations seem to pop up naturally, it can help her to ease into the discussion without feeling as if you’re trying to ambush her or force her to talk. You want her to feel more open about what’s going on.
Listen to Her Objections
Some of the roadblocks your senior throws into the conversation may feel as if they’re just there to derail you, but others may have a lot more honesty to them than you realize. Listen carefully to what she’s sharing because those objections could involve some valid fears and concerns that she really does need to have addressed in order to feel comfortable moving forward.
Find Answers to Her Questions
Whenever possible, find answers to your senior’s questions. When you can come back to her with answers that can allay some of those fears, it helps to remove them for her so that she’s able to move on. That can be what you need to help her to come closer to embracing a solution.
One of the solutions that you and your senior might be overlooking could be hiring end-of-life care providers. They can give your senior the hands-on attention that she needs while still adhering to her wishes during this time of her life. It’s important that you’re able to give her what she wants the most while also ensuring she’s in good hands.
If you or a loved-one are considering end-of-life care in Marietta, GA, please call the caring staff at Arcturus Hospice and Palliative Care today. Call 678-383-9973 today to speak to our care team.
Kate Gorinshteyn is the director of marketing at Arcturus Health Care. Arcturus is a fast-growing Hospice striving to provide the highest level of quality care to patients faced with life-limiting illnesses. Our goal is to make each patient as pain-free as possible and give physiological, emotional and spiritual support to both the patient and family. We understand that the decision change from curative to comfort care is difficult, and our team is trained to help you every step of the way!
We are proud to make a difference in the lives of those we serve.
