How to Talk to Your Elderly Loved One about Senior Housing Options
Whether you’re a long-distance caregiver or simply a busy caregiver with too many responsibilities at once, there may come a time that helping your loved one find alternate living arrangements is a good idea. If you approach the conversation correctly, you can keep it positive.
Care Management Services in Indianapolis IN: Senior Housing Options
Ease into the Conversation
When you first start to realize that your elderly loved one may not be okay on her own, it’s important to take the time to gather more information and to ease into the conversation. Your elderly loved one is likely to resist the idea of moving at first, especially if she fears that this means that she’s being shoved off into someplace that she’ll be forgotten.
Listen to Your Loved One’s Concerns
As you do open up the lines of communication, be sure to listen carefully to what your elderly loved one expresses as her concerns. She may fear losing her independence, for example, or that you and other family members will forget about her. While some of these concerns may seem like no big deal to you, they can be a huge deal to your elderly loved one.
Express Your Own Concerns Clearly
While talking with your elderly loved one, make sure you’re clear with her about your own concerns. For example, if she’s been having more trouble keeping up her home on her own and you’re not able to do it either, let her know that you’re worried about her being in a safe and clean environment. Exploring senior housing options can allow your loved one to have both safety and a clean place to live.
Avoid Ordering Your Loved One into a Decision
If you approach the conversation from the standpoint that this is how it’s going to be and she needs to get used to it, you need to prepare yourself for a great deal of resistance. This is about improving your loved one’s life, not making her bend to your will. Making this decision about a command doesn’t help.
Get Answers Together
Let your loved one know that you’re going to research her senior housing options together. You might want to gather three or four options to look at, but be sure to let your loved one know that she’s in control of the final decision. She may feel more open to investigating.
Reassure your elderly loved one that this won’t be a bad experience for her and you’re not giving up your family caregiver duties because her address is changing.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Care Management Services in Indianapolis, IN, please contact the caring staff at Advocate Care Management at (317) 471-0770
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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