Having your loved one in hospice care can feel overwhelming to you as her family caregiver. By staying as connected as you can to your loved one, you’ll both feel more relaxed about the situation.

Try to Stay Calm and Soothing

Keeping your own approach calm and soothing can help you and your elderly loved one to feel that things are fine. If you’re feeling emotionally overwhelmed and out of sorts, that’s going to come through to your elderly loved one. This is a time for you to try to remain as calm as you can.

Talk to Your Loved One

Some people fear that if their elderly loved one isn’t communicating with them, that must mean that they can’t hear what’s going on, either. That’s very often not the case at all. Talk to your loved one and let her know what’s going on. You might simply share bits and pieces of family news or talk about the weather. Whatever you share with her, though, she’ll know that you’re right there next to her.

Engage in Activities that Your Loved One Enjoys

If your loved one has some favorite music or a favorite movie, it can help to play those in the background. Try reading your loved one’s favorite book to her, too. This is particularly helpful if you’re worried that you don’t know what to say to your loved one. She’ll still hear your voice, right there beside her, reading her favorite word to her.Consider

Using Therapy Animals

Therapy animals can be tremendously soothing for your elderly loved one, especially during the time that she’s in hospice care. If you don’t already have contacts that use therapy animals, work with county and hospice agencies to find licensed therapy animals in the area that might help your loved one. This is especially important to consider if your loved one has always been an animal lover.

Take Care of Yourself

Many times family caregivers believe that they should be by their loved one’s side for every moment of her time in hospice care. The truth is that you still need to take care of yourself and that can mean taking some time away so that you can express your emotions more freely and get some rest. Neglecting yourself is only going to make everything more difficult.

Do your best to stagger visits from other family members so that your loved one isn’t too overwhelmed.

If you or an aging loved-one are considering hospice care in Norristown, PA, please contact the caring staff at Serenity Hospice today. Call (215) 867-5405.