CARE COACHING TIPS

via growingbolder.com

When It Comes Down To Just You, Care Coaching Makes A Winner.

Have you visited a loved one in a nursing home and looked around? What did you see going on in there?

How do so many people arrive at this particular destination?

Most people have a patented answer: “People need the best care available and this is the place.”

What they mean is, “The best care you can afford,” but that’s another post.

Care facilities hire staff to attend their residents. If it’s your mom or dad in there you want to believe the staff is highly qualified and motivated. On paper they are.

It’s the other parts that grow troubling. Patient interaction, professional presentation, and the ability to go beyond the job description are the hallmarks you look for.

But there is one more huge area to address: Care coaching.

Too often family members show up to visit and feel a need to show they care more than mere words can express. They try to make everything right that’s wrong, and everything’s wrong in their eyes.

These are the people who need care coaching.

You know them now. When they’re driving, all other drivers are in their way. Tell them they’re going the wrong way on a one way street and you’ll be wrong.

The passengers who want to fly the plane and drive the bus, the students smarter than the teacher, and the neighbor who knows everything but with a weird twist, all need care coaching before they hit the nursing home visit. So here we go.

Care Coaching Tips:

– You tried decorating your kid’s dorm room when they went to college? How did that work out? Do the same in your mom’s nursing home room and risk creating trip hazards.

You don’t want to be haunted by the broken hip that sent her into a health spiral because you thought she needed her special foot stool?

– During a visit, whether it’s a nursing home or your parents’ home, ignore the clock. Your hustle and bustle won’t fit.

Ask yourself, “What do they do all day?” and you’re falling into a time trap. Be content knowing your mom is doing all she can, even if it doesn’t look like much. She thought the same of you during your baby crib days when you were busy swatting at the mobile she hung over your face to make sure you developed the right way.

– At some point you realize life is messy. Then you come face to face with end of life. Except it’s not the end. Your mom is still alive and pushing through her day, but the push looks so weak to you it seems like she’s not trying.

Hygiene isn’t up to your standards? She’s got a new bruise on her arm? She doesn’t feel like talking about the old days?

If you’re trying to be the wind beneath their wings, don’t drag them into your problems. Instead, be a solution to theirs.

You’re not going to make them younger, healthier, and more vital, but you can remind them of the effect they’ve had on you and others.

And isn’t that what a good life is all about? You wouldn’t be here without them, and the whole scope of family and friends wouldn’t have the light they share without them. Use that baby boomer experience and light things up.

Isn’t that something worth talking about? My vote is a big yes.