Traumatic brain injury rehabilitation is never “one-size-fits-all”. As the caregiver for a loved one with a brain injury, the ability to effectively communicate can be tricky. Often, your loved one looks exactly the same as the person with whom you have spent years wrapped in the warmth of easy banter and casual conversation. But when that ease transforms into effort, it can be disorienting. The caregivers at Compassionate Care Home Health Services effectively communicate with clients with brain-impairment every day. To help understand the most effective way to communicate, you might try comparing how you communicate with your loved one with how you communicated with your first high-school crush.
- You want him to notice what you are saying, so make sure he is paying attention to you before talking to him. Once you have his attention, keep looking him right in the eye. If he starts to look away, get his attention back before you continue.
- Be polite. Ask him if he would please sit down next to you, don’t demand that he do so. “Can you? Will you? Please?”
- Move close to him when you are communicating…but not awkwardly so. Make sure to respect his personal space while being close enough that volume and background noise are minimized.
- Just like the first time you spoke to your dream date, make a concerted effort to speak slowly and clearly regardless of your emotional state.
- When you find yourself tongue-tied, use gestures to get your point across. Encourage your loved-one to do the same.
- Keep your communication simple and direct. You will naturally refine the level of simplicity required as you learn about the individual characteristics of your loved one’s abilities. For example, it might be enough for one family to ask their loved one to please eat lunch. For another family, the process might need to be broken down to “please take a bite of your sandwich.” If your teenage experience included trying to help a friend ask someone out, you are familiar with this refinement process. “Call her” sometimes worked, but, more often than not, you had to patiently facilitate. “Pick up the phone. Dial her number. Okay, now say something.”
- Let your loved one know he matters by actively listening to him. Ask questions about what he is saying. Quote him when telling him what you think about what he has said or when asking a follow up question.
- Be your loved one’s “presence advocate.” Conversations taking place when he is present should include him, especially conversations about him. Again, travel back in time to the night your high school crush came over for dinner. If, when sitting at the table, your parents were talking about him as if he wasn’t there, you would have said something. Do the same on your loved one’s behalf today.
Under the best circumstances, being the caregiver for a loved one with a brain injury presents unique complexities. Things will take longer to accomplish than they used to, and navigating this new relationship can occasionally create emotional circumstances for both you and your loved one. When in doubt, ask yourself what you would have done as a love-struck teenager. In addition to providing guidance in that moment, the thought might induce an awkward grin and help you discover just enough energy to try again.
If you have a loved one with a brain injury and need extra help and support, either at home or in a care facility, the Michigan home care experts at Compassionate Care Home Health Services can help. Contact Compassionate Home Health Services, providers of home health care West Branch, MI and the surrounding areas trust, to schedule your free care consultation in your home at 877.308.1212.