When your normally kind and patient elderly parents become easily agitated, aggressive, and demanding, their behavior takes a toll on your relationship. Not only are you riddled with guilt over not having enough time to divide between your aging loved ones and your own family, you have to deal with negative changes in your parents' demeanor that drags you down emotionally and mentally.
Aggression among the elderly is common: usually related to losing control over one's own lifestyle or age-related medical issues like dementia, many families face the struggle of caring for their parents while undergoing physical and mental abuse from their charges.
Some people — especially caregivers whose parents were abusive while raising their children — suffer from depression as a result of taking on an aggressive parent later in life.
Luckily, home health care is of great assistance to situations like yours. Discover the ways a home health care program benefits your entire family when you're dealing with the decline of an aggressive loved one.
Gives You a Break
Whether you hire a home health nurse to care for your aging parents on the weekends so you get time to decompress or you select full-time care, home health care gives you a break from the daily struggle of trying to understand and manage the behaviors of your parents.
You need time to focus on your own needs, and in doing so, will be able to better care for — and be patient with — your parents when home health care is not around.
Teaches You How to Cope
Home health aides and nurses
are specially trained to avoid and contend with physical and emotional conflict and are often able to diffuse a situation due to their understanding of where your parents' aggression is coming from. In turn, these practices are taught to you and your family so when you are around your parents, you can more easily deflect or avoid physical and emotional abuse.
Remember: your parents may be unable to control their behavior, or if they can, are unable to understand where their anger is coming from and lash out at you because they are comfortable around you.
Most often, your presence and care are not the reasons why your loved ones are aggressive towards you, but rather, the fact that they are unable to do the things they used to and have to receive care from others is cause for their increasing aggression.
Keeps Everyone Safe
When your relationship with your elderly parents becomes so brittle that you would rather neglect them than care for their well-being, it's time for professional help to step in and assist your family. This is particularly the case if your parents suffer from a medical condition like Alzheimer's, diabetes, or other condition that needs constant medical care.
Never leave your parents unattended, even if your loved ones are being difficult or unusually cruel. Call a doctor immediately to set an appointment for a mental evaluation and to begin the home health care process.
Home health aides are trained to keep environments safe for their charges and provide a variety of services. Therapy, companionship, light housekeeping, hygiene assistance, and medical care can all be provided by the same home health facility. Write down all concerns you have about your aging loved ones to give to your home health facility at your initial consultation.
Aggression in the elderly is not something you have to deal with on your own. Trust our trained and professional team at Redi-Nurse to care for your parents. We offer a full line of in-home care services to meet your family's needs. Meet with us today to discuss your care giving situation today.
