Your elderly mother or father may be perfectly content where they are at this stage in their life. They might be dealing with certain health issues. You may notice their physical abilities are declining, even if only remotely. As time marches on, though, it’s going to increase the risk of health complications and mobility challenges.
What you should be doing at this stage in the game is learning about elder care. Assisted living is a great option not just for single men and women of advancing years, but couples, too.
What Assisted Living Can Offer
Whether both of your parents are still alive, it’s just your mother and stepfather, they’re single, widowed, or whatever, you care about them. You care about what happens to them, not just now but well into the future.
More adult children live farther away from their aging parents than at any other time in history. It might be three or four hours by car. It might be across the country or even around the world. Even if it is only a couple of hours each way to visit with them, that pretty much means you would have to become a long-distance caregiver when the time comes.
Types of Assisted Living Support
Even if you live right down the street, do you have a job? A career? Children you are raising of your own? Other responsibilities? Most people do. That means the time you can devote to your elderly parents is going to be limited.
Assisted living surrounds aging seniors with competent staff, compassionate individuals, other seniors their age, activities, safety, healthy meals, and a comfortable environment.
Does That Apply to All Assisted Living Communities?
Just as there are different types of elder care, there are different kinds of assisted living communities. Not all are considered quality facilities. Yet, the ones that are considered good or top-of-the-line essentially put the needs of residents above all else.
Some facilities are considered memory care facilities. That means they are specifically set up to help men and women dealing with Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other types of memory related challenges in an effective and safe environment.
Bringing Up Assisted Living
The best time is when it’s not yet necessary. Usually when somebody is struggling with mobility or simply doing the basic tasks of everyday life, bringing up the topic of elder care can cause them to get defensive. That’s because they have already been worried about what the future may hold.
Most people don’t want to give up their freedom easily. They don’t want to lose independence and autonomy. When they start hearing about topics of elder care from loved ones, that’s often what they feel, that they are going to lose their freedom.
If that time is now, arm yourself with as much quality, reliable information about local assisted living facilities that you already vetted and checked out. Don’t make stuff up. Don’t guess. When you have the right information, bring it up in a way that shows just how much you love your mother or father.
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