Help Older Men to Accept Proper Care
Providing extended health care for any older adult can be a challenging experience, even for professionals who are properly trained for the role. Family caregivers have the added problem of emotions and ‘history’ when caring for a parent.
Men often fight against long-term health care and providing care for them is even more complicated when a loved one doesn’t want help. The refusal by the care recipient of accepting the needed assistance can easily make their overall well-being decline even faster. For family members, this adds additional stress and anxiety.
Loss of Independence Hard to Accept
Experts tell us what seems to make common sense. Men sometimes have a more difficult time accepting the loss of their independence. Be it a physical decline, a decline in their cognitive ability, or other chronic health problems that slow them down, men will be in denial – if they ignore the problem, sometimes they think it will go away.
There is also losing their privacy. Men are used to routines, and when you start experiencing declining health or physical and cognitive issues, the routines they have been used to change.
When you get older, you might be frightened and vulnerable about a new stage of life and where that is leading to. You would expect some level of fear. Men think of themselves as being strong – the rock of the family. When they become a care recipient, they recognize they are no longer in that position.
Read the full story from LTC News here.
