Why Is it Important for Long-distance Caregivers to Ask for Help the Right Way?

Caregiver in Falls Church VA: Long-Distance Caregivers

Many family caregivers who live far away from their elderly loved ones wonder why they should be concerned with how they ask for help from other people. The short answer is that how you ask is going to frame what quality of response you get.

You’re Relying on Someone Else.

It’s difficult sometimes to rely on other people to let you know what’s going on with your elderly loved one. Your loved one can give you one set of information, the people you ask for help can give you slightly different information, and then there’s what you might see with your own eyes. There’s a lot of trust involved in relying on other people. Asking for help the right way can bring all of those perspectives closer to what’s really going on.

Be Extremely Clear and Specific.

How you phrase your requests makes all the difference in the world as to the result you receive. For example, if you ask someone to stop by and just check on your loved one, you’re likely to hear back that she’s doing well and that the visit was lovely. If you were hoping for more details, such as learning whether she had fresh food in the fridge or if there’s anything that needs repair at her home, you might not get those. A better way to ask is to let the person stopping by know what you’re hoping to learn so that they can give you a full report.

Let Them Know How You Want Feedback.

If it’s important to you to get feedback about the visit in a specific manner, you’re going to need to include that in your request. An email might be what you’re looking for if you need a lot of information, for example, or a simple text message might suffice if you’re just looking for a response such as “all is well.”

Practice Makes Perfect.

You’ll get better about getting the results that you want the more you practice phrasing your requests, so start practicing. As a long-distance family caregiver, you have quite a few opportunities to put this to the test. If you’re not getting the results you want, look more closely at how you’re phrasing your requests.

Also try asking your family members and friends to repeat back the request to make sure everyone is on the same page. This can help you spot misunderstandings quickly.

If you or an aging loved one are considering caregiver services in Falls Church, VA, call the caring staff at Medical Professionals On Call today. 703-273-8818

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Michelle DeFilippis

I graduated with a BS degree and had been selling medical equipment to hospitals, clinics and technicians. More recently, a family member was diagnosed with dementia and we, as a family, realized we were not prepared t care for her. We were thrown into that whirlpool of hospital stays, 24/7 live-in care, skilled care, caring for mom ourselves and finally, now daily home care. This was such a stressful time that I started thinking there had to be other people, other families as overwhelmed and unprepared as we were.

Medical Professionals On Call has such a caring, professional staff who are available to step in with whatever level of care necessary for loved ones and to relieve you of that stress.

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