Having “The Talk”: How to Discuss End-of-Life Issues with Parents

…In my experience, I’ve found that it isn’t always seniors who avoid talking about death. Some do, of course, but many of our aging loved ones would like to discuss the legal and financial arrangements they’ve made, as well as their preferences for end-of-life care and how they would like to handle their medical decisions if they were to become incapacitated. On the other hand, adult children often find excuses to delay frank discussions about serious illness and death.

Few of us like to consider that our parents will die, but nothing will change this truth. In actuality, avoiding end-of-life discussions and failing to help aging loved ones prepare for this inevitability can make the whole experience more difficult and painful for the entire family in the long run…

Continue on Agingcare to read more about ways that we can approach our aging parents so that we can better help them in their later years:

Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories. “For anyone having to walk the last segments of life with a loved one, read this.” …Delores