Four Tips for Helping Your Senior to Leave Driving Behind
Driving may be something that you and your elderly family member need to talk about sooner rather than later. Your senior may have trouble driving safely for a variety of reasons, ranging from health issues to cognitive changes. It helps if you have a plan you can put in place to help ease her fears and ensure that she’s got what she needs.
Make Sure You Explore Other Options
The first step in properly transitioning your senior out of the driver’s seat is to make sure she’s got another way to get around safely. That can be a deal-breaker for your elderly family member, so this matters a lot. Home care providers are an excellent transportation choice because they can do the driving, but they can help your senior in so many other ways, too. This is usually the most on-demand solution, too.
Keep Everything Simple
If you and your senior are coming up with complex plans for all of this, you’re more likely to run into trouble with these plans. It’s really important that you make all of this as simple as you possibly can. When you do that, you remove more obstacles and objections to your senior complying with the overall plan. That’s going to give you a better chance for success.
Be Clear with Everyone Involved about What the Plan Is
Your senior’s personal plan is not going to look like anyone else’s. There may be situations in which you have negotiated with her that she can still drive occasionally. Everyone who helps your senior needs to be clear about those conditions so that they can support her. If your elderly family member should never be driving at all, the people who love her need to know that, too.
Remember This Is a Big Change
Something that you need to remember when you’re going through all of this with your senior is that this is a massive change and it’s not an easy one at all. Your senior is going from being able to drive whenever and wherever she wants to no longer being able to do that. There’s a lot of emotion wrapped up in that and conversations can get volatile quickly if you’re not careful.
Your senior may adjust very well to giving up driving, especially after some time. Do what you can to help her to ease into this new normal with as little turmoil as possible.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Senior Care in Berwyn, PA, please contact the friendly staff at Suma Home Care.
Call today: (484) 206-4544
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