It’s a terrible feeling to know that your elderly family member is edging closer to the end of her life and you just don’t know what to do to help her. As her family caregiver, you’re probably already doing so very much, but these ideas can help.

Help Her with Small, Practical Care Issues

Your senior’s hospice care providers are handling the big stuff, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be involved in the daily care your senior needs. You can sit with her and offer her beverages, helping her to drink, or simply doing things like applying lotion or lip balm for her. These are small details, but they can be incredibly comforting for your senior.

Take Care of Yourself

You also need to be prioritizing your own care. If you’re not doing that at this juncture, that creates difficulties that you really shouldn’t have to face right now on top of everything else. Rest when you can and make sure that you’re eating healthy meals regularly. Get up and stretch now and then or go for a walk to clear your head and to work your muscles a little bit.

Talk with Her about Her Final Wishes

It’s so difficult to talk about your senior’s final wishes with her. It might be so difficult, in fact, that you’ve both been putting off this conversation. That’s why it can be so important to take advantage of any opening that you can to talk to your senior about what she wants and what you can do to meet her wishes.

Make Sure that Her Medical Providers Know Her Wishes, Too

Her medical providers need to have as much information as you can provide, too. That helps them to craft the care plans that ensure she has her needs met. The more you can help them to pin down your senior’s wants, the better job they can do with formulating a full plan for her. It’s important to remember, though, that you may not always be able to meet your senior’s wishes fully, especially if her health changes dramatically.

Hospice care providers can help you to find your footing in this new stage of your senior’s life. They’ve got experience that you can lean on in order to ensure that your senior is able to spend the later stages of her life in the way that she most wants to spend them.

If you or your aging loved one could benefit from End of Life Care in North SC, contact the caring staff at Grove Park Hospice, (803) 536-6644.