Very often family members near the ends of their lives start to experience visions. These visions might involve talking with family members who are no longer with you or with angels or other people. Your elderly family member might even talk to people while she’s experiencing these visions, which can be disconcerting for you.

Are These Hallucinations?

Many people hear their elderly family member start talking about seeing visions and they fear that these are hallucinations. They’re not hallucinations, but you might still feel as if they are from where you’re standing. How you handle these visions is going to be incredibly important for your elderly family member at this stage of her life.

Avoid Arguing with Your Senior

Regardless of whether you believe that your elderly family member has really experienced what she’s sharing with you, avoid arguing with her. It’s worth it to save your effort and energy and simply listen. If you try to correct her or argue with her, you’re likely only going to upset your family member and she really doesn’t need that at this stage in her journey.

Don’t Freak Out

This kind of experience is difficult for a lot of people to wrap their brains around. When your senior tells you that she’s been speaking with someone that you can’t see or a loved one who passed away years ago, that’s something that can freak you out. Try to avoid showing any kind of shocked or alarmed reaction to your elderly family member.

Let Hospice Care Providers Help You

Hospice care providers have a lot of experience with this exact situation. If you’re feeling uncertain about how to handle these visions when talking with your elderly family member, let the hospice care providers take the lead. You can learn more about what you could say and how you could react that is comforting to your elderly family member.

Talk with Your Senior about What She’s Seeing

You might find that as you become more comfortable with the idea of these types of visions, it’s easier to talk to your family member about them. Sit down with her and talk about what she’s seeing and experiencing. Even if you still don’t believe these visions are real, you may be able to pull some comfort from them for yourself.

If you’re concerned that medications or other contributing factors could be creating this situation for your aging adult, feel free to talk with her doctor. Once you rule out anything else, it might be easier for you to simply be there for your elderly family member as she describes these visions to you.

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