Care Coordination: What Can You Do about Resistance to Care?
Care Coordination: When you feel as if your elderly family member is resisting all of your best ideas and plans for helping her to have the best quality of life possible, that can become incredibly frustrating.
Worse, it can leave you feeling as if you’re not doing enough to help her with care coordination.
Care Coordination in Southport IN: Care Coordination
Get Some Help Figuring out What Your Senior Truly Needs
Before you can do much to overcome your senior’s resistance to care it’s vital that you understand what she really does need. Until you do that, she might be resistant for a reason. Care coordination services can help you to make an honest and thorough assessment of what your elderly family member truly needs and what resources are going to best serve her.
Keep Your Senior Involved in Discussions about Her Care
Part of the reason that your elderly family member is not keen on discussing or participating in care is that she might feel a bit left out. Talk to her when you’re both in a positive frame of mind about what’s going on and what you’re concerned about. All of the decisions and discussions about her care should involve her opinions as well.
Try not to Force Decisions When She’s Not Ready
You may be ready to pull the trigger on a decision, especially if you’ve got resources and help from care coordination experts to lean on. But that doesn’t mean that your senior is quite ready. Make sure that you talk with her about what’s holding her back and why she’s not at the same point you are. There could be something you’re still overlooking.
Stick with the Plan
Once you’ve got a plan and you’re making headway with that plan, stick to it. You can always modify the plan if it doesn’t seem to be meeting the needs of everyone involved, but don’t confuse that with completely veering off the plan. Also, it can help your senior to trust in what you’ve planned out if she sees that you’re sticking to what you’ve discussed. That can be an important part of building the trust that she needs in order to remove that last bit of resistance.
Often resistance to care coordination is rooted in feeling out of control and worrying that her independence will be shattered. Try to remember that your senior is operating from a position that is slightly different from your own, so her perspective is slightly different, too.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering Care Coordination in Southport, IN, please call the caring staff at Home Services Unlimited. Serving Greater Indianapolis Area. Call for Immediate Info & Assistance: 317-471-0775
A Distinguished Career From Nurse to Director of Nursing to President of Home Services Unlimited
Etelka’s distinguished career followed a logical progression to her position as President of Home Services Unlimited. She graduated as a nurse practitioner with a Bachelor of Nursing (RN) in 1972 from Meshgorya University in the Ukraine, close to where she lived with her family. She married her husband Phil in 1973 and decided in 1977 that they would relocate to the United States to be closer to family and to come to this land of opportunity. With an eagerness to continue her budding career, Etelka sat for and passed her Boards in the U.S. in 1979.
A Love and Talent for Working with the Elderly
Etelka began her nursing career in the U.S. at Colonial Crest, now part of Golden Living, where shewasthe In-service Coordinator, the Director of Training and Education and Director of Nursing, a position she occupied for several years.
With a group of partners, she co-founded Adept Corporation, which operated group homes for the mentally challenged. The business was successful and in 1996, Etelka sold her share to return to her roots, caring for the elderly.
In January of 1997, Etelka opened Home Services Unlimited as a fully licensed business to provide home health care. In her quest to learn to do better for her patients, she had already obtained a Masters in Healthcare Administration (MHA) in May of 1990 from the College of St. Francis. As President of Home Services Unlimited, Inc., Etelka guides the trusted, experienced care model Home Services Unlimited uses to continue providing excellent home health care.
Giving Back to the Community of Indianapolis
Volunteering for community services is a high priority for Etelka. Her memberships include the Indiana Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, Executive Women in Health Care and the Indiana Association for Home and Hospice Care, where she is a member of the Board of Directors.
Etelka has also served on the Board of Directors with Hooverwood Home, a highly regarded geriatric facility, since 1997 and as the President for 2005-2006. Through her community work, she has received several awards and accolades, including the Nora McFarland award in 2002, from the Indiana Association of Home and Hospice Care.
Etelka was honored as a “Health Care Hero” by the Indianapolis Business Journal. The issue can be read online here:
http://mags.ibj.com/activemagazine/welcome/html/ibjhch.html.
After clicking on the link, then click on the image of the issue’s front page. After that, you can browse through the issue or click in a box near the top of your internet browser to adjust the page to 17, which is where Etelka’s article appears.
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