Difficult Seasons

A feeling of independence is even more important when you’ve lost some of the ability to take care of all of your daily needs.  It is a major factor in quality of life for the care receiver.

So as a care giver, it’s vitally important that you find as many ways as possible to help the person you’re caring for feel independent.

1. Some of helping them feel independent is through how you communicate with them.  Asking his  permission for even simple things, offering choices instead of commands, and taking his or her desires about things into account are big.
2. If she is not able to drive to medical appointments or to go shopping, help find alternatives that she can manage on her own.  Most independent and assisted living centers provide some type of transportation service.  Or, in many cities, there are commercial or governmental services specifically for older adults that will provide transportation for a reasonable fee.  This allows her to regain a measure of control over her life, as she can handle these activities on her own, without having to depend on you.
3. Let him do everything he can or wants to try to do on his own.  If he can do his own laundry, don’t do it for him.  If she can manage her own finances, don’t do it for her.  If he can make his own doctor appointments or handle his own insurance issues, let him.  Being able to handle these kinds of routine tasks promotes good self esteem.  When you take them away when she could do them, you take away an important source of good self image.  It’s fine to offer to assist, as long as you let her do it her way.

And I’m sure you can think of other ways to promote a feeling of independence for the person you’re caring for.

Here’s the principle:  Allow the person you’re caring for as much independence as they can handle, even when it makes you uncomfortable. Allow the person you’re caring for to live their life with as little interference from you as possible, but with as much support as needed. Don’t make the person you’re caring for more dependent on you than is absolutely necessary.

Tags: Care Giving, caregiver communication, independence, quality of life, self esteem, transportation

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Caregiving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.