Senior Care Tips: If you suspect that your elderly family member is having any issues with driving, it’s best to face that conversation head-on right away.

That can be really difficult to do, though, because much of your senior’s identity may feel wrapped up in continuing to drive whenever she wants. Use the following senior care tips to help you and your senior.

Get Clear about What Your Concerns Are

This isn’t an easy topic, either for you or for your senior. What can make it go a lot more smoothly is if you make sure you’re clear about your goals, your concerns, and about what you want to communicate to your senior. Taking the time to do this unemotionally beforehand gives you a chance to flesh out your thoughts.

Talk with Your Senior’s Doctor

It’s also important to talk to your senior’s doctor about what you’re seeing and what might be going on. Your senior’s doctor may have some insights about health issues or medications that might be contributing to making driving more difficult for your senior. Her doctor may also have some other suggestions that can help.

Talk with Your Senior

Don’t leave your senior out of these decisions. They’re big, first of all, and they directly affect her life. You never want your senior to feel as if you’re ordering her around or trying to restrict her life in any way. Know also that you may have to have several versions of this conversation as you and your senior each come to terms with the changes that she’s experiencing.

Senior Care Tips: Look for Solutions

This conversation isn’t about keeping your senior at home or keeping her from doing the things that she loves to do. With that in mind, you’re going to need to have some solutions in mind. Working with home care assistance can offer plenty of solutions to your senior in terms of other issues she’s facing, too. Knowing that she has caregivers ready to offer help any time that she needs it, even with things like transportation can be a huge relief for you both. If your senior isn’t sure how home care assistance can help, consider a trial run for a little while.

When your senior stops driving, that’s a big change for her and for you. It may mean giving her some time to come to terms with all that those changes mean for her. In the end, focus on helping your senior to be as safe and as mobile as she needs and wants to be. Use the above senior care tips to help when speaking to your senior about driving.

If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring a Caregiver in Berkeley, CA, call the caring staff at Aviva In-Home Care.

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Evan Loevner

CEO at Aviva In-Home Care

As a former hospital administrator, I launched Aviva with the goal of having a more focused, direct impact on the delivery of care than I could ever accomplish within a hospital setting. For me, the joy of running an organization like Aviva In-Home Care is having the ability to positively improve the lives of individuals needing customized care. As a passionate Bay Area resident, I know that many local seniors can benefit from new approaches to in-home care, that will bring them more connection to the community, and provide families with a greater sense of comfort that their loved one is indeed matched with an ideal caregiver.

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