Elderly care providers are there for your senior when you and other family members might not be able to be there with her. That can sometimes lead to a very solid caregiving relationship. Other times it requires a little more effort to help that happen. These ideas might help your senior to learn to open up to someone who is helping her with a variety of tasks.
Finding Activities to Enjoy Together
What does your senior enjoy doing for fun? Putting puzzles together, playing games, or listening to music are all interests that she can share with someone else. It helps if your senior’s elderly care providers enjoy some of the same things, but it isn’t essential. What sometimes matters the most is that someone is showing an interest in learning more about what your senior enjoys. Patience can lead to a lot of fun, like your senior’s caregiver finding books she’ll enjoy and reading them to her.
Spending Time Talking
Conversations are important, too. Sometimes the simplest questions can start a really deep conversation where your senior’s elderly care provider learns much more about her. Talking isn’t a requirement, of course, but if your elderly family member is willing to talk it helps if she has someone there who is willing to listen.
Scheduling Outings and Adventures Together
One great way to bond is to have an adventure with someone. If your senior has been housebound for a while, getting out once in a while might feel like an impossible treat. With the help of her elderly care provider, though, it’s a lot easier to make that happen. They might just take a drive, spend some time in nature, or find other things to do.
Just Give it Time
The important thing for you to remember is that you can’t force a relationship between your senior and anyone else. If she’s not willing to open up to elderly care providers just yet, you may have to just give things a little bit of time. There could be a lot of reasons your senior is reluctant to interact much with anyone else at the moment.
Ideally you want your senior to have the best relationship possible with her elderly care providers. Sometimes that happens naturally and immediately, but it can also take some extra time. The key is to make sure your senior has the opportunity to make those choices and to hopefully do some reaching out herself.
