If you are trying to convince one or both of your parents to accept help, you are not alone.
Convince parents they need help

We encounter families facing this challenge all the time. Perhaps the most rewarding part of helping people get over this hurdle is seeing adult children spending quality time with their parents again. Once their time together is no longer dominated by appointments, medications, finances, household tasks and other to-dos, they are able to enjoy family time again.

We have found that parents often respond to one of the following three strategies for convincing them to accept help.

1. Ask a Favor

Most people don’t want to admit they need help, especially when they have spent most of their lives caring for other people. Parents are often more willing to do things to help their children than they would to help themselves. If you can reframe the conversation to be about you – how the stress of worrying about mom affects you, she might see things differently. We have seen success when children ask their parents – as a favor to them – to accept some help, or at least give it a try.

2. Temporary Trial

A second strategy is to propose home care services for a temporary trial period. Your dad might be imagining (dreading) needing help for the rest of his life, which may seem overwhelming, or could even feel almost like giving up. He might be more open to trying it out for a couple of weeks, knowing he can discontinue services after that temporary period if he doesn’t like it. Once they have help, most clients come to see that it’s not a threat to their independence, but rather more like a treat to have a visitor and someone to help do things they wouldn’t otherwise be doing.

3. Avoid Injury

The third approach is talking through what might happen without any help. This is not about scaring anyone, but unfortunately, we have seen multiple instances of someone refusing help, then sustaining an injury while doing something a caregiver could have been doing, and suddenly requiring significantly more care than would have otherwise been necessary. People sometimes come to understand that a little bit of help now – to enable them to continue living independently and safely – is preferable to ending up in the hospital or otherwise requiring substantially more care in the event of an accident that could have been avoided.

If you need help broaching the topic of home care with one or both of your parents, please get in touch. We will be happy to help you navigate these challenging conversations, and we will work with your parents to create a care plan that only enhances their lives.

Contact Us

Get in Touch!

We are here to help! Click Contact Us or call 404-668-0128 if we can help you convince a loved one to accept home care services.

Contact Us