Making the decision to place a loved one into a senior care facility is one that individuals struggle with immensely. There’s plenty of emotions that accompany considering a move to a senior care facility to boot. When looking at the bright side, having a parent or loved one moved to a senior care facility is a great decision if it keeps your family member safe and healthy. Let’s look at a few recent situations that can help you know when it’s the right to make a move to a senior care facility.
State of the Home and Finances
Making a trip to your parents’ home can offer valuable insight into your loved one’s condition. Is the home as neat and orderly as it used to be? Or has maintenance on the home fallen into a state of disrepair? Is all necessary correspondence and bills being answered or are piles of bills and papers piling up? These are simple observations that elude to the fact that your elderly counterpart can’t stay on top of all the activities required to keep a home running. If this is the case, they are literally and figuratively “in the weeds”, by moving to a senior care facility your loved one will be unburdened of the day-to-day operational activities that can quickly stack up to become a daunting task.
Home Accessibility & Safety
A related but separate issue surrounding the home of your loved one is the actual accessibility and safety of the house they live in. In assessing the safety of the home, you want to look at appliances in the house and how easy they are to operate. Additionally, is their home equipped with grab bars and an emergency response system in the event of medical emergencies. Furthermore, is there a plan in place to deal with medical emergencies? Assessing the home’s safety standards can give you a major insight into if you should move your loved one to a senior care facility. Choosing the right care involves ensuring the safest environment possible.
State of Physical Appearance
Is your aging loved one’s physical appearance beginning to diminish? For example, do they look thinner than your last visit despite them saying that they eat? Are they falling regularly to the point they have bruises or other visible signs of injury? Have they been skipping regular bathing and grooming or wearing the same clothes for days on end? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it’s time to consider that they would have access to help with these daily living activities in a senior care facility.
Emotional or Mental State
Does your aging parent forget important events like remembering to take their medication at the recommended times? Are they interacting with others, or are they typically isolated? These are a few crucial questions to answer to ensure you are choosing the appropriate level of care for your loved one. Not only will your loved one have access to nurses trained to administer medication, but a senior care facility offers so much more than that…the ability to be a part of a larger community and have a social life.
Caretaker Burnout
While no one wants to believe that they could become burnout or just plain exhausted from the labor of love that is being a caretaker to an elderly parent, relative, or friend, it happens quite often, and when burnout occurs, the overall care level will drop. Caretakers often have young children, careers, and our own homes to care for, and so pulling double duty can take a physical and mental toll. Additionally, the more stressed you as a caretaker feel, the higher the level of care your loved one needs to receive, serving as a barometer for their condition.
Conclusion
When making the decision to move a loved one to a senior care facility, it’s important to remember that care for them is changing yet continuing. While the majority of caretakers swear they will never place a parent or close relative in a nursing home, when reality calls, you must make the decision on what is best for your loved one, even if the answer doesn’t come in a form they approve of. As our parents’ age, it’s also important to remember that if you make a decision that will promote the health, safety, and fullness of life for your loved one, you are certainly making the right decision. Want to talk with someone at Jefferson Park at Dandridge about you or a loved one making the move to a senior care facility? Call us at 865-397-3163 or click HERE.