Here’s the thing, seniors are some of the most likely candidates to suffer from depression. There are numerous factors that contribute to this.
For one, elders deal with death, funerals, and mourning much more frequently. Secondly, they struggle with the natural degradation of the body – again, this isn’t saying they’re less in shape, far from it – as we’ve shown with Heather’s grandfather who bikes 80 miles a day for sheer fun! However, our immune systems get weaker and our bones get more porous and some elders need to be on several forms of medication. It’s easy to get saddened reflecting on that. Third, and this is what we want to talk about in this article, seniors commonly get depressed when it comes to senior home care because they feel like they’re losing privileges, responsibilities, and (most of all) freedom.
Senior Home Care Depression
When you have “the talk” with your elder about getting them additional help and care, they may be resentful. What makes it tough is that, in many cases, they think you don’t have faith in them; like you don’t trust them to take care of themselves or do the chores around the house. To be fair, that’s one way to look at it… but there’s always another way.
When you start at a job, one of the things you look for is growth. Companies want to maintain their employees as long as possible, and if they’re going to do that, then it requires much more than perks and quality management. What employees need is to know is that there’s room for growth. When you rise through the hierarchy, what happens? In most cases, you have more responsibility and more authority, but less day to day duties. Those previous tasks you had to do are delegated… you see where I’m going with this?
The reason elders who find themselves in need of home care get depressed is because they feel like they’re losing privileges and thereby freedom. They feel like it’s a punishment or a slight against them. But that’s just it, they shouldn’t (and don’t) need to feel that way. Instead, why not translate it as a promotion, delegating their common chores/tasks and responsibilities to someone else.
Ease of Living in Senior Home Care
It’s not a stretch to make this analogy. Heck, the crux of technology and innovation is finding ways to make a laborious task easier. An electric toothbrush brushes your teeth so you don’t need to scrub. A roller suitcase was built to make carrying luggage easier – heck, in China, someone actually converted their suitcase into a motorized scooter so they can ride through security (no joke).
The fact is, when you confront your elder about senior home care, and tell them that a caregiver will help with cooking, cleaning, shaving, etc… it should come as a relief! Finally, all these chores are done for us, by someone that cares. Imagine how much time you’ll save not having to do those tasks again? Plus, some of the greatest inventors eliminated menial tasks and thoughts to focus on larger matters (Steve Jobs wore the same thing everyday so he wouldn’t need to think about it). If your elder is one of those people that hopes to write a novel, this will be the best time to do it.
