How to Talk to Your Elderly Parents

Increasingly, individuals find themselves faced with the need to help their aging parents address concerns about health and lifestyle issues. While many families are willing and available to provide the necessary supports to seniors, this assistance is difficult for many elders to accept, because it goes against their long held desire to be independent. In other families, a complicated history of communication styles and personality conflicts get in the way of productive discussions about how to proceed.

Caregivers have many questions and concerns: How do I discuss a sensitive issue like relocation or personal hygiene with my parent? Are there strategies for enhancing communication that make the conversation more productive? If I have a problem communicating with my parent, are there resources out there to help me?

Barriers to Helping

Many of the seniors I work with today are resistant to any kind of help from relatives or outsiders because they don’t want to appear dependent on anyone. Many older folks are fiercely private and would not dream of involving others in their personal affairs.

Oftentimes, families experience frustration with a senior’s inability to make a decision of any kind. Over the years, I have discovered that for many seniors the way to avoid making a bad decision is to make no decision at all!