Helping Your Senior Quit Smoking for Better Health
Elder Care in Ada MI
There are some risk factors for illness and health conditions that your elderly parent cannot avoid or change, such as his age, sex, or family history. Some, however, are completely avoidable and 
can make a tremendous difference in your parent’s health and wellbeing. One of the most prevalent of these risk factors is cigarette smoking. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that approximately 17 percent of the adult population of the United States smokes cigarettes. Contributing to 1 in every 5 deaths, however, smoking is the single leading cause of preventable death. Smoking increases the risk of a wide variety of health complications including lung cancer, COPD, and cardiovascular disease, and can dramatically reduce quality of life.
If you are on an elder care journey with a senior who smokes cigarettes, helping him to quit can improve his life and help him to live a healthier, stronger, happier life as he ages in place. Use these tips to support your loved one and encourage him to quit smoking:
- Do not judge. Helping your loved one stop smoking is not about making him a better person. Being judgmental or implying that this habit makes him a bad person will only embitter your loved one and reduce the chances that he will actually go along with quitting. Instead, be supportive, loving, and encouraging. Along the same vein, make sure that you are being supportive in being a good role model for your parent. If you smoke, quit along with him and make sure that no one else around him smokes.
- Be truthful. Confront the realities of smoking with your loved one so that he will know fully why it is that you want him to quit. Research the facts of smoking and the risk that it puts your parent in each time that he smokes. Your parent likely comes from a time when smoking was considered safe and even healthy, and even though this has not been the popular conception for decades, many seniors are not aware of the full extent of the dangers of this habit. Confronting these truths can make him more willing to put effort into quitting.
- Take the “blame”. It is possible that your parent will not really care if he is in danger if he enjoys smoking. If this is the case, consider turning the “blame” on yourself. Instead of making his improved health about him living a healthier quality of life for himself, make it about you wanting to have him around longer and your children wanting to have him in their lives for as long as possible. This will appeal to his emotions and his desire to take care of his family more than his desire to take care of himself, which may be more meaningful to him.
- Get the doctor onboard. If your parent is the type of person who has a lot of respect for his doctor, get him on board. Of course the doctor will agree that your parent should quit smoking, but ask him if he can actually write a prescription for your parent to quit. He might take this more seriously and agree to comply with the guidelines.
If you or someone you know needs help with elder care in Ada, MI, contact Gauthier Family Home Care. We provide quality and affordable home care services in our community. Call us at (616) 258-2300 for more information.
Sources:
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in-united-states.html?gclid=Cj0KEQiAvJS3BRDd44fjndyii6MBEiQAN4EkPR8-eN4YKW-vJIf3rnBP4YMjxjC1g-0g4S6JOUuGLOMaAnNq8P8HAQ
http://betobaccofree.hhs.gov/health-effects/smoking-health/
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