Elderly May Be Hesitant to Accept Help

Very rarely do we find elderly parents who are asking for help. Calls for home care assistance generally come from adult children. Extended family members are tasked with researching home care agencies.

It is a characteristic of elders, like so many of us, to be hesitant to accept the assistance of strangers in their home. These emotions are to be expected. And, their reasons can be summarized as follows:

– Seniors feel help is not wanted/needed
– Elderly don’t want a stranger in their home
– Accepting assistance is a sign of “giving-up” to old aging
– Elderly don’t want to add to their monthly expenses
– Elderly have never needed home assistance…until now!

I always mention in conversations with adult family members – their elderly parents and aging relatives have gotten this far in life on their own terms…so in many cases it is difficult to convince them (seniors) now to accept change.

In many instances, seniors do not understand how best to efficiently manage and derive benefit from the assistance and expertise of home care staffers. They have never hired homecare services. They don’t know how to utilize.

Interestingly, elders may very well need to be “taught” how best to utilize in-home care staff. Many times these are seniors who have never wanted, needed, nor allowed any help in their daily lives. This can be explained in a variety of ways, not the least of which may include culture, family background, personal pride, shared responsibility with spouse or partner, etc.

JD Miller

About JD Miller

John D. Miller is the founder/owner of Home Care Partners, LLC, a Massachusetts business providing private duty, personalized in-home assistance and companion care services to those needing help in daily activities and household functions. Phone: (781) 378-2164 Email: jdmiller@homecarepartners.biz Website: https://homecarepartnersma.com
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