Tips for Understanding Grief Better to Help Your Elderly Loved One

Grief is one of the strongest emotions that a person has. It can come about in various ways for each individual, too. For instance, there may be something going on in your elderly loved one’s life that you think they should have moved past by now, but they are still grieving. Everyone has their own limits and time frame on grief. For some, it never ends, but gets easier with time. There are some tips to help you better understand grief. These tips can help you to better assist your elderly loved one when they are grieving.

Unique Grief

As just mentioned, everyone has their own way of handling and experiencing grief. Just because a similar situation happened to you, that doesn’t mean your elderly loved one will handle their grief in the same way that you did. The more you can understand that everyone has their own unique grief experiences, the more you can support your elderly loved one with what they are going through.

Talking About Grief

Has your elderly loved one been talking over and over again about their grief? You might be getting frustrated about them saying the same things over and over again. However, it is important to remember that everyone has a right to talk about their grief. This could be helping your elderly loved one to process what happened. Over time, they likely won’t talk as much about it. However, in the meantime, talking may be exactly what they need to cope and process.

Feeling Multiple Emotions

When someone is grieving, they may go through many emotions from anger to resentment to sadness and more. It is alright for every individual to feel a range of emotions while grieving. This is part of the healing process. You should never tell your elderly loved one that they can’t or shouldn’t feel a certain way about what happened. They need to be able to feel their emotions. This will help them to work through the grieving process.

Wanting Time Alone

If something terrible happened in your elderly loved one’s life, such as their spouse passing away, you may want to be around all the time to help them. However, it is important that people have time alone, sometimes, to feel by themselves. It is a good idea to spend time with your elderly loved one and be there for them. However, you can leave at times and tell them you are available for a call if they need you. You might be worried to leave your elderly loved one alone. However, it might be what they need to work through the grieving process. If you are very worried, you can ask your elderly loved one if they would prefer having one of their caregivers there with them, instead of a family member. That way, someone is still in their house, but not trying to interfere with the grieving process.

Conclusion

These are some of the tips for better understanding grief. Now that you have these tips, you can better support your elderly loved one while they are grieving.

Sources
https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdcs/griefloss.htm_617933_7.pdf

If you or an aging loved-one is considering caregivers in Modesto, CA, please contact the caring staff at Provident Care Home Care today at (209) 578-1210.