Are You and Your Senior Having Trust Issues?
February 17, 2020
Trust issues degrade all types of relationships, including those between you and your senior family member. It’s important that you both learn how to build or rebuild the trust between you.
Make Sure She’s Striving for Reasonable Goals
The goals your elderly family member has set need to be ones that she can reasonably achieve. If she doesn’t have goals that are reasonable and achievable, that’s going to present problems for her on multiple levels. It’s also going to be more difficult for her to trust in the processes you’re laying out for her. She needs to be able to experience success.
Avoid Dwelling on What She’s Lost
It’s too easy to concentrate heavily on what your senior has lost. What that does, though, is takes away from what your elderly family member is still able to do and to achieve. She needs to be able to build on the positives rather than focusing on the negatives. Part of building trust between the two of you involves making sure that you’ve both got your main focus on the right goals.
You Don’t Have to Cheer Everything
You want to be your senior’s biggest supporter and you are. But you can do that without cheering indiscriminately for everything that happens. For instance, if you’re putting too positive a spin on everything, that comes across as insincere. That makes it difficult for your senior to trust in what you’re telling her. Cheer for what’s real and she’ll have more faith in those responses.
Set a Good Example with Self-care
You want your elderly family member to take care of herself and to trust in your caregiving skills. That’s a normal part of being a caregiver. In order to do that, she needs to have some trust that you’re doing this the right way. One way to set the best possible example is to engage in regular self-care. Bring in elder care providers when necessary and let them take over for you. Show her the ways you’re taking care of you so that you can take care of her.
Trust is a vital part of caregiving. You need to trust that your senior is doing what she needs to do in order to be as healthy and as safe as possible. But she needs to be able to trust that you’re being honest with her and that you’re doing the most you can as her caregiver. This can be a delicate balance to achieve.
If you or your loved one is looking for Elder Care in Santa Cruz, CA, please call Familiar Surroundings Home Care.
Santa Clara County: (408) 979-9990
San Mateo County: (650) 353-9777
Santa Cruz County: (831) 480-3990