Help For Seniors During The Holidays: Coping With Loss

Comfort Keepers provides help for seniors who may be coping with the loss of a loved one during the holiday season

The holidays often mean coping with the loss of a loved one for our seniors. And while a lot of the time spent with family and friends is jovial, it’s just as important to find help for seniors and set aside time for healthy grieving for those they lost.

If the senior in your life is coming up on his or her first holiday season since the loss of a loved one, it’s important to realize that this may be a very hard time for them. Even if they have gone through it before, no amount of time can completely block the grief from effecting the holiday season. And with that grief, certain questions may arise:

• Should I carry on as if everything is alright during these Holidays?
• Should I just skip this year’s traditions if it’s too hard to handle?
• Should I completely change the rituals I am doing now that I’m alone?

These questions are extremely difficult to answer as they are completely subjective, and what works as a coping mechanism for one person could be completely baseless to another. This sort of grief is often too overwhelming and finding the right help for seniors can seem like a daunting task for them. A few beneficial ways to begin taking charge of your feelings are:

• Acceptance. Accepting and coming to terms with the fact that your pain and the memories of a loved one will be triggered during this time. From the sights of over-crowded shopping malls, and families coming together to partake in activities like ice-skating, there is no real way to avoid the holiday buzz. However, by simply accepting that the season will be a harder time and by lowering expectations for yourself, one can gain more strength to cope with the pain.
• Preparation. Planning ahead and anticipating certain activities and traditions that come with the holidays is another way to embrace one’s own reality now without their loved one. Planning your calendar a week in advance and foregoing some activities that are too painful, can help prevent becoming overwhelmed with grief.
• Support. Providing help for seniors, such as support groups, can vastly help in the grieving process during the holidays. Support groups let seniors know that they aren’t alone in their feelings, and being a part of a counseling group can work wonders with coping.

Regardless of what your tactic is, realizing that it is acceptable to grieve and that you aren’t alone during the holidays is the most important thing to know as a grieving senior.