What if Your Aging Adult Doesn’t Want to Follow the Incontinence Plan You Worked Out?

Home Care Services in Shelter Island NY: Addressing Incontinence With Your Senior

It’s great to have a plan to help your elderly family member manage her incontinence, but if she doesn’t want to follow it, it still won’t work.  If your senior is resisting the plan, you’ll need to figure out why.

Explain the Health Ramifications

Ignoring incontinence could lead to skin problems, particularly in sensitive areas, as well as physical isolation due to embarrassment.  Your elderly family member might find that she’s sick more often if her immune system is compromised.  Depending on her other health conditions, incontinence could be a factor there, too.

Explain that it’s Less Embarrassing to Be Prepared

Embarrassment might be the biggest issue that keeps your elderly family member from following any sort of plan to manage her incontinence.  It’s better, however, to be prepared for accidents and other issues because that can make the entire situation less embarrassing.  Your aging adult can go about her life, but she can also resolve anything that crops up.

Talk about What Is Causing the Resistance

Once you deal with health considerations and embarrassment, there may be other issues creating resistance for your aging adult. For example, the products that she’s using to help her manage her incontinence might not be working for her properly.  That’s a huge problem, but it’s easy to fix as long as you know about it.

Work with Her Doctor

There are new solutions and treatments all the time, even for issues such as incontinence.  Open a dialogue regularly with your elderly family member’s doctor to find out what new options are available for your aging adult.  Even if there aren’t any that work for your elderly family member right now, there may be in the future.

Get Some Experienced Help

Eldercare providers have much more experience with incontinence management than most family caregivers do.  So hiring home care providers can help you and your elderly family member to break through possible resistance and get a new plan together that works for both you and your aging adult.

In the end, you’ll need to do the best that you can to help your elderly family member get back on track with the plan to manage her incontinence.  Sometimes just remembering that it doesn’t have to be embarrassing can be what your aging adult needs.

If you or an aging loved one are considering home care services in Shelter Island, NY, call the caring staff at Artful Home Care today at 631-685-5001.