What Is Senior Advocacy All About?
All sorts of people will advocate for your elderly family member as she continues to age. You’ll be her advocate in most issues, but you’re going to need some help along the way. It’s a good idea to become familiar with how advocacy affects your senior.
What Is an Advocate?
In the strictest sense, an advocate is someone who “pleads the cause of another.” When you’re advocating for your elderly family member, that means you’re stepping up in order to help her to get what she needs, when she needs it. You’ll do that in a variety of ways and the tools you’ll need may change over time as your elderly family member’s circumstances change.
Being a Health Advocate for Your Senior
One of the most obvious ways that you advocate for your senior on a regular basis is through managing her health alongside her. When you help her to track her symptoms, talk to her doctor on her behalf, and help her to be taken seriously by medical professionals you’re being her health advocate. If her health worsens significantly, you may end up legally being her health advocate, especially if you have a durable power of attorney.
Advocating for the Right Living Conditions
At some point, you and your senior may find that her current living situation does not support her needs as well as it used to. That may mean moving into your home, into an assisted living facility, or into a nursing home. Being able to advocate for your senior’s needs to be met is incredibly powerful during a time of uncertainty. You’ll need to explore the various options and see which ones fully support her needs.
Getting Support as Your Senior’s Advocate
As much as you can do for your senior personally, there are a lot of situations in which you may feel out of your element as her advocate. Getting help from experts in senior advocacy is easier than you might believe that it is, and they can make a huge difference in your senior’s care. It’s also a huge relief to know that you’ve got the help that you need in order to ensure your elderly family member is in good hands.
You’ll continue to learn more about what you can do as your senior’s advocate and how other services can help you to do even more. All of that information is going to be vital for your senior.