Caregiving Tips to Ensure You’re Motivating Without Bullying

Make sure you’re not crossing the line from motivating to bullying with these caregiving tips.

As a family caregiver, you obviously encounter an array of feelings throughout the day: shared laughter over a joke with your senior loved one; worry due to a health concern; and certainly, from time to time, irritation. We want only the best for those we love, and if a senior loved one is resistant to doing an activity we realize is beneficial, it could be tough to identify the most appropriate response. 

The key is to try to offer motivation and support, while remaining cautious not to ever cross the line into bullying your senior loved one. These caregiving tips are good to remember:

• There’s no one-size-fits-all. An approach that has worked on a single occasion may perhaps be entirely ineffective in another. In the event that the older adult refuses to take a bath, for example, you could decide to just let the situation go and attempt again the next day. Or, maybe reframing bath time into a relaxing spa activity will hold some more appeal. Adding humor may work well one day, while employing a gentler, softer tone of voice may be the solution on another. Having a number of strategies at the ready often helps decrease irritation for both of you.
• Empower your loved one to stay in control. Have a heart-to-heart conversation with the senior when you have a few peaceful moments to obtain feedback on how the caregiving relationship is going, and what she or he would like to see changed. It’s beneficial to then take to heart the older adult’s responses and integrate them into your caregiving technique. 
• Be conscious of progressive bullying. While we definitely would never set out to bully a loved one into compliance, it’s conceivable to slowly move from encouragement and motivation into pushiness and forcefulness without realizing it. Take an unbiased examination of your tendencies in communicating with your senior loved one, and then take the appropriate steps to improve upon them as needed.
• Keep in mind the overarching objective. Apart from the various tasks required in providing care for a senior loved one, maintaining a healthy, happy, and fulfilling relationship with each other is a top priority. If you learn that the worries of providing care are outweighing the rewards for either of you at any time, there’s always the possibility of investigating different care options, enabling you to place your focus on enjoying quality time with the older adult you love.

Hired Hands Homecare, the leading provider of in-home support services in Santa Rosa and the surrounding areas, is the ideal partner for family caregivers. Our caregiving staff are fully trained and experienced in the multiple facets of senior home care, and will supply the help and support family members need to preserve healthy relationships with those who they love. Contact us online or call  (866) 940-4343 for more caregiving tips and to request an in-home consultation to discover the real difference respite care can make both in a senior’s quality of life and yours.