How Can You Help Your Parent Understand Their Cancer Treatment Options?

One of the most challenging experiences that a family can go through is finding out that one of their members is suffering from cancer. If you find out that your senior has cancer it is your responsibility as their family caregiver to help them to manage this diagnosis in the best way possible and tailor the future of their care to their individual needs. At the beginning of their journey one of the ways that you can help them is to ensure that they understand their cancer treatment options. There are many different approaches to treating and managing each type of cancer and it is important that your loved one feel confident that they have chosen the one that is right for them.

Use these tips to help your aging parent understand their cancer treatment options: 

• Review the disease with them. As you and your aging parent are sitting down to discuss how they want to approach their cancer, reaffirm that they understand their diagnosis. Make sure that they know not just what type of cancer they have been diagnosed with, but also what their prognosis is. This can help them to better process the different types of treatments because they will be able to understand how each is applicable to their situation.

• Ask specific questions. Once the doctor has given your parent an overview of each of the treatment options that are available, encourage them to ask specific questions about each one to gain more information. These questions can help to illuminate details about the treatments and how they can impact your parent’s health and quality of life so that they are better able to understand not just how the treatment actually works, but what it could mean for them individually.

• Go beyond the doctor. Even if you have never known your aging parent to prescribe to anything but the most conventional of medicine, do not limit them. Be sure that you discuss the possibility of alternative and supplementary forms of treatment with them and their doctor so that they get the full picture of what is available to them. Even if they do not choose one of these approaches, knowing that they are out there gives them all of the information that they need to make the choices that are truly right for them.

One of the best decisions that you can make for your elderly parent when they are going through cancer is to hire senior care for them. Having a senior home care services provider in the home with your aging loved one is a way to extend the care that you give to them so that you can feel confident that they can live the happiest, healthiest, safest, and most comfortable quality of life as they move through their cancer and age in place. The personalized services offered by this type of care provider take your parent’s individual needs, challenges, and limitations into consideration and combine them with their personal thoughts, convictions, feelings, and beliefs to develop a highly customized approach to their ongoing care and management. This means that they will get the care, support, and assistance that is right for them and you can have peace of mind knowing that there are living their best life possible when you are with them and when you are not.