Starting the conversation about preparing for old age, including financial security, long-term care, health directives, and residential preferences, are often delayed or avoided. The delay is often caused by the emotional and complex nature of these discussions. As a result, people tend to postpone them, creating a significant challenge that can lead to poorer outcomes, heightened stress, and important decisions being made without clearly expressed wishes.
Starting the Conversation About In-Home Care for Calgary’s Seniors
Comfort Keepers® Calgary provides helpful advice for adult children and their parents on how to initiate and navigate crucial conversations. These discussions often focus on sensitive subjects like long-term senior care, finances, healthcare and end-of-life planning, driving safety, and general home safety, all of which can be sources of discomfort that prevent them from happening.
PROtip: The best advice is to plan carefully and think through such conversations so that they are as positive and productive as possible. Write down what you think needs to be discussed so you don’t forget anything.
To ensure positive and productive outcomes, it’s best to plan important conversations carefully. Write down the points you want to cover so you don’t overlook anything.
View this not as “The Conversation,” but as the start of an ongoing series of discussions. By addressing issues one at a time, the process is less intimidating, making it more likely you will initiate the conversation and keep it going.
Six Tips for Families About Starting the Conversation:
#1. Get Started Early:
Begin early when your parent’s health allows them to fully participate and share their wants, needs and preferences. Otherwise, your decisions may be dictated by a life-changing event and may not necessarily reflect your parent’s wishes.
#2. Find a Friendly Environment:
Choose a time and place that makes everyone comfortable. Avoid special family gatherings, like a birthday or holiday celebration. Choose a time that is not hemmed in by other obligations so you can have a relaxed, unhurried conversation, giving your parents plenty of time to share his or her wishes.
#3. Make it a Family Discussion
Include other family members but meet before approaching your parents to make sure everyone’s on the same page to avoid an unproductive, confrontational situation.
#4. Concern Over Confrontation
Make the experience non-threatening by letting your parents know you’re concerned for his or her well-being and want to know how you can help them. Explain that you would like to help them write down their plans to help assure that they are followed. You also can help open the discussion about long-term planning by inquiring whether there are any responsibilities – such as home maintenance, yard work or bill paying—they would like you or someone else to help with to make life easier.
#5. Connect Through Communication
Use good communication skills. Maintain good eye contact and get close enough to your parents, without invading personal space. Closeness builds trust and allows you to speak – and be heard – in an even, controlled voice.
#6. Connect on Common Ground
Share an experience such as your own retirement or estate planning as a way to gracefully transition into a conversation about your parents’ thoughts regarding the future. A friend or relative’s medical emergency could also serve as an opening for dialogue.
Six More Tips for Families About Starting the Conversation:
#7. Get the Paperwork In Order
Ask about records and documents. Ask your parents where they keep important documents such as insurance policies, wills, trust documents, investment and banking records, tax returns, living wills and durable powers of attorney. Explain that you want to be prepared to help them when needed. This could also serve as a way of finding out what plans he or she has already made and what needs to be done.
#8. Invite Conversation
Ask open-ended questions that encourage your parents to share feelings. Then sit back and carefully listen to learn what is important to him or her.
#9. Options and Solutions
Offer options, not advice. Pose questions and offer more than one acceptable solution. Ask your parents which choice they prefer. This involves them in the decision process and enables them to exercise control and independence.
#10. Respect Rather Than Restrict
Speak with respect. Approach the discussion as a partner with your parents. In other words, make sure your parent is an active participant in the conversation. Start listening and respecting their desire and need to maintain control over their lives. Avoid reversing roles in the discussion, that is, you acting as the parent and your parent as the child. This could cause your parents to resist your attempts to open discussion.
#11. Keep It Simple for Success
Keep it simple. As stated earlier, do not try to resolve everything at once. The goal is to open an ongoing, honest dialogue about your parent’s future, to share information and to understand your parent’s wishes and needs so that decisions can be made.
#12. Source External Supports
Involve third parties if your parent resists your efforts to begin the discussion. He or she may be more open to the guidance of a respected non-family member, such as a doctor, a member of the clergy, a geriatric care manager, representative of an area agency on aging or trusted friends and neighbors who may have already helped a loved one in a similar situation.
Starting the Conversation: Seniors Can Initiate the Discussion
If you are a senior who is looking ahead and wanting to plan for the future, you do not have to wait for your children to bring up the subject. Often adult children don’t like thinking about their parents getting older and are reluctant to initiate the discussion.
Three Tips for Seniors About Starting the Conversation with Your Family
#1. Take the initiative:
If you begin having difficulty with activities of daily living, such as bathing, driving, or managing finances, speak with your physician or other healthcare professional. Also bring up the subject with family and ask for their suggestions and assistance.
#2. Share your preferences with family and friends:
Do you want to continue living at home but with the help of a caregiver who can assist with certain tasks around the house? Or if you are finding it more difficult to prepare nutritious meals for yourself, would you prefer having meals delivered or having someone prepare meals for you in your home?
#3. Learn about available services to help you as you age:
Physicians, social workers, geriatric care managers and other healthcare professionals can guide you in this, and your local Area Agency or Council on Aging can provide a listing of services available in your area.
Comfort Keepers® Calgary Offers Comprehensive Homecare Services for Seniors in Alberta
Comfort Keepers® in Calgary, AB, is the leading provider of care for seniors, providing individualized homecare options to meet the unique needs of your loved ones.
Each Comfort Keepers client has unique care needs. That is why we offer a full range of in-home care services for seniors and other adults – to tailor care plans that provide our senior and other adult clients the right amount and types of help to support independent living at home.
Our comprehensive in-home care services are designed to support seniors and their families throughout Calgary, Alberta. We offer compassionate companionship, personalized personal care, light housekeeping, and meal preparation, as well as specialized care for individuals living with dementia or requiring end-of-life support.
We also assist with safe transportation to medical appointments, grocery shopping, and pharmacy visits. For those who need continuous support, Comfort Keepers provides reliable 24-hour and live-in care options to ensure comfort, safety, and peace of mind.
Personal Care and Companionship Services for Seniors are Available at Comfort Keepers® Calgary
Through personalized home care services in Calgary, we empower seniors to remain engaged and connected. Every care plan is thoughtfully designed to suit individual preferences, ensuring the client receives more than care; they receive companionship, encouragement, and dignity.
Home is the Best Place to Be: The Interactive Caregiving™ Difference
Interactive Caregiving™ provides a system of care that addresses safety, nutrition, mind, body, and activities of daily living (ADLs). Our trained caregivers in Calgary use Interactive Caregiving to engage clients in meaningful ways, creating stronger emotional bonds and promoting mental clarity through conversation, games, gentle exercises, and purposeful routines.
Aging-in-Place with Top-Notch Personalized Senior Care
Comfort Keepers® Calgary is here to help you and your loved ones get the best care possible. If you live in Calgary, Chestermere, and Okotoks, and require homecare services for senior personal care and wellbeing, contact our local Comfort Keepers® office at 403-228-0072.
Senior Hydration
Senior Hydration
Senior Hydration: Staying hydrated is a crucial part of good health. And sometimes, it can be tough to keep seniors hydrated. This is because as we get older, we lose some of our sense of thirst and our ability to notice when we’re too hot. Plus, many seniors take medications that are dehydrating, which means that they should be keeping an extra close eye on their hydration. Dehydration can be a serious medical emergency in seniors, which is why it’s so important to keep your loved one hydrated.
Signs of Dehydration in Seniors
Common signs of dehydration include weakness, fatigue, dry mouth, headaches, low blood pressure, and in severe cases, the inability to sweat. One great way to keep track of hydration is urine color. Light or pale yellow urine indicates good hydration, while darker urine indicates dehydration. Some seniors may take medications that change urine color, so be sure to note that. You can also tell whether someone is dehydrated by pinching the skin on the back of their hand and seeing how fast it snaps back. If the skin stays in that pinched position for longer than usual, your senior is very likely dehydrated.
Related Article: Keeping Bones, Muscles and Joints Healthy and Strong
Keeping Seniors Hydrated
One way that you can keep your loved one hydrated is by educating them about proper hydration and reminding them to drink water. Encourage them to carry a water bottle with them or keep water bottles in places they most commonly spend their time so that they can remember to drink throughout the day. It’s much easier for seniors to drink a little bit throughout the day than to have a large glass all at once.
You can also encourage seniors to stay hydrated by suggesting that they eat foods high in water. Things like celery, apples, or oranges are great choices. Popsicles, herbal tea, and sports drinks can be good choices as well, especially if your senior doesn’t like regular water.
Finally, do your best to keep them in a cool, air conditioned place. If their home doesn’t currently have air conditioning, consider getting some fans or portable air conditioning units to help them cool down. If they are outside, make sure they’re staying hydrated and resting in the shade when needed.
Comfort Keepers Can Help
At Comfort Keepers, we offer in-home caregiving services to seniors who want to live independently in their own homes. Our caregivers can provide a number of services to help your loved one stay healthy, including making sure that they stay hydrated.
If you’re interested in our services at Comfort Keepers, contact us at our Calgary location today so that we can get started on creating a specialized care plan for your senior. We look forward to meeting you and your loved one!
Bonus Article: Custom In-Home Senior Care
The Benefits of In Home Care for Seniors in Calgary
In Home Care for Seniors
The Benefits Of In Home Care For Seniors | Is it time for your loved one to have some extra help around the house? Many seniors don’t want to admit that they need help with tasks like cleaning or personal care. But getting high quality in home care for seniors can make it easier and safer for them to remain in their own homes instead of moving into an assisted living facility.
Deciding when to talk to your senior loved ones about getting some extra help can be a sticky subject, often one that many family members of aging adults try to avoid. It is important to understand what the benefits of in home care for seniors really are before introducing the idea to your senior loved one.
First and foremost, there are key differences between home senior care and an assisted living facility or nursing home. This alone may change your loved one’s attitude about whether or not they will accept help. Care in the home differs primarily from assisted living and nursing homes in that the care your loved one receives is in his or her very own home. There is no need to relocate. A caregiver will come into their home (or your home, as the case may be) and will work with your family and senior loved one to make improvements that will allow the senior client to remain at home as safely and independently as possible.
In Home Care for Seniors Can Take Many Forms;
At Comfort Keepers our in home care for seniors is on an as-needed basis: weekly, daily or even 24/7 as the case requires. We are able to provide support to make life for seniors at home easier, such as moving furniture to clear pathways, adding lighting to help aid better sight and avoid falls, and installing handrails and grips to make bathing and movement easier. We are also able to help with daily chores that can bog down a senior and cause messes and dirt to accumulate.
Our expert care providers can assist seniors with laundry and folding, light housekeeping such as vacuuming and dusting, mobility assistance to get up and down stairs, errand running, meal preparation and nutritional planning, transportation to and from doctor’s appointments and much more. Whatever your loved one needs to make living at home a little less stressful, Comfort Keepers Calgary can do it.
Seniors who are struggling with chronic or terminal illness can benefit from residential care services specifically tailored to those needs. Specific care plans, such as post-hospitalization transitional care, Alzheimer’s and dementia care and end of life care, can take a large amount of stress off family members attempting to do it all themselves.
With certain diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s or other chronic/terminal illnesses it simply isn’t always possible. Our care services afford families the opportunity to spend quality time together while our care providers take care of the day-to-day details.
Comfort Keepers® Calgary Can Help with In Home Care for Seniors
At Comfort Keepers®, we create individual care plans for every client. These plans include wellness goals that consider physical, mental and emotional health. Our caregivers can help support physician-prescribed diet and exercise plans, provide medication reminders, provide transportation to appointments and help seniors engage in the activities they love the most. And, our caregivers can help senior stay connected with loved ones through video chats, phone calls and care updates. We believe that every senior should experience the best in life.