Looking After An Elderly Loved One Towards The End

The unfortunate reality of life is that there is likely to come a time where you are going to be looking after your loved ones towards the end. Or, at the very least, you are going to be visiting them regularly to ensure that you are spending as much time with them as you can. This is going to be tough for everyone involved, but it’s important that you are doing a few things. What kinds of things are we talking about? We’re glad that you asked.

Be Patient And Understanding

It’s important that at this time you are exercising all of the patience and understanding that you can manage. We understand that there are times where this is going to be particularly difficult, but you have got to do your best. Your loved one deserves your patience and understanding at this time, even if the whole situation is stressful and unfair. 

We know that it’s hard, but you need to try and keep your emotions in check as much as you can. It’s okay to feel sad, but try to make sure that you don’t mistake this for anger or frustration which is common in situations like these.

Take Care of Their Medical Needs

When someone has a terminal condition, and especially when they’re approaching the end of their lives, it’s easy for that condition to take over everything. But when you’re trying to make someone more comfortable, it’s important to look after all of their medical needs, even the seemingly less pressing ones.

Talk to your loved one’s doctors and carers about ways you can help make them more comfortable and care for them. Try to look after their general health as much as you can. Your loved one might not have an appetite, so focus on foods they enjoy. Pain management might be a major part of their healthcare needs as well.

Make sure that other conditions that impact their quality of life are also being treated. For example, older people often experience hearing loss. In this case and depending on what’s appropriate for them, it might be an idea to get hearing aids even now. Or, if they already use hearing aids, help them look after them. The same applies to other aids and medications that improve their lifestyle.

Help Them With Whatever They Want To Do

If they are still able to do things that involve moving and getting out of the house, then help them with whatever they want to. If there are certain experiences that they want to do before they pass on, then help them to experience these before they pass on. If there is something that they want to see, or somewhere in the world that they want to go, if it’s possible then you need to try and make this happen.

You would want someone to do the same thing for you, so you need to do it for them. Give them this happiness, and enjoy these things with them.

Ask Them What They Need From You

Finally, it’s a good idea to ask them if they need anything from you. For example, they might want to get their affairs in order before they pass and they might want you to help them do it. Some people want to plan their funeral themselves before they go so that their loved ones do not have the stress of doing this on top of everything else. If they want to do this then you can look at headstones by Memorials.com and other places like this.

If it’s within your power to give them what they need, you should do your best to grant their request. Obviously this is not going to be appropriate for everything, but when it’s right, you’ll know it.

Hopefully you have some ideas now surrounding what you should be doing when looking after an elderly loved one towards the end. It’s going to be tough, but we promise that you will feel better knowing that you did all you could do to help, even if it doesn’t feel like that much at the time.