Caregiving: How to communicate with professional medical staff

Being a caregiver has many benefits and drawbacks. While caregiving can be a wonderfully rewarding and inspirational career, it’s also a very challenging job, and many caregivers find themselves frustrated with the difficulties of their positions. Of all of these challenges, though, few are more agonizing than the task of trying to figure out how best to communicate with doctors and nurses on behalf of a senior.
For older adults, communicating effectively with care staff is often a difficult task. Thanks to cognitive decline or a simple unwillingness to speak up, seniors often don’t effectively express their needs to doctors and nurses, and the responsibility to ensure the senior’s medical wellbeing falls to caregivers.
While this can be a stressful experience for both parties, it doesn’t have to feel like a burden. Here are several tips for caregivers who want to learn how to communicate more efficiently with a senior’s care staff:
1. Develop a relationship with the senior’s doctors
Unless you have an ongoing relationship with a senior’s care professionals, communicating with them effectively can be a challenging task. Caregivers need to dedicate some time and energy to developing relationships with a senior’s doctors and nurses. The best way to do this is to attend as many appointments as possible with the senior you care for.
2. Gain inclusion in the HIPPA contract
HIPAA laws dictates that doctors, nurses, and other care professionals are not allowed to discuss a client’s personal medical information with anyone else unless the person is incapacitated and over the age of 18. Because of this, caregivers need to gain inclusion in the HIPAA contract before it becomes time to speak with medical professionals on behalf of a senior. This enables caregivers to help seniors make medical decisions and to protect the senior’s overall health and wellbeing better. It also ensures that the caregiver will have all of the information needed should a major medical decision present itself.
3. Ask plenty of questions
Helping seniors understand and respond to medical conditions and care options can be difficult, and things like their diagnosis and medical-speak are often far from easy to interpret. It is important for caregivers to ask plenty of questions to fully understand a senior’s condition.
4. Write down your questions
Many caregivers think of questions when they’re not in a doctor’s office. By the time they make it to the next appointment, though, they’ve forgotten their questions. Take a moment to write down questions and bring them to the doctor’s appointments.
5. Encourage the senior to speak on his or her behalf
While caregivers must learn to communicate effectively on a senior’s behalf, it’s also important to encourage a senior to speak up wherever possible. Often, the message is a bit louder when it comes from the senior’s mouth.
Excellent Communication Starts Here
While learning to communicate on behalf of seniors can be difficult, it’s a critical skill for caregivers. By following these tips, you can help facilitate better communication between the medical staff and your loved one.
For more information on caregiver support, please contact Elderbridge Agency on Aging at www.elderbridge.org, or by calling 800-243-0678. You may also contact LifeLong Links at www.lifelonglinks.org, or by calling 866-468-7887.