I have heard stories and had multiple conversations with my friends and colleagues about their elderly parents and how it gets more difficult to engage with them most especially when it comes to planning the food they eat and the daily activities that should be conducted to ensure a senior’s full participation. As much as we want to be the catalyst of change and the root of making our elderly loved ones safe and secured in our own homes, we also cannot deny the fact that with the daily tasks that we need to fill in, the responsibilities tend to get stressful most of the time.
This is where the beneficial purpose of senior homes comes in to save the day. Senior home is a general term that refers to the act of allowing the elderly to maintain independence in the comfort of their own homes or home-style assisted communities. It is one way of making sure that seniors are being taken care of without pulling away from the feeling of security and comfort of the place they have lived in. Senior homes have widely spread all throughout the United States to continuously help more and more families suffering from the challenge of keeping up an appropriate environment for their elderly loved ones.
As much as sending off an elderly parent to a senior home or hiring someone to take over the convenient care to be given to our parents is a difficult tasks to do, we would always come to a point where multiple reasons are already pushing us to do the necessary action for the betterment of each and every one. The following reasons are just some of the scenarios you might already be encountering but I hope you can get enlightenment in the aspect that sending your parent to a senior home is not actually a traitor move but an act of providing them better living.
Your Personal Life
One of the most common reasons why we encounter stress in terms of handling responsibilities for our senior parents is that giving them the appropriate care requires a great deal of time, patience, and energy. It is undoubtedly physically damaging to go ahead and take the load of responsibility if you are also coping up with your own problems and daily endeavors. For instance, your own personal illness often triggers medical expenses. Taking responsibility for yourself and an elderly parent can become overwhelming and might lead to financial conflicts.
The Need For Appropriate Health Care
As a normal person that also handles every day routine and tasks, we will always encounter difficulties when it comes to tracking the progression of an elderly parent’s health. In a more important note, initial health care needs that seem to be manageable can lead and develop into more serious conditions requiring stable attention. Issues such as dementia, restricted mobility, and incontinence can make way for major health risks if not supervised with an expert on the field. As heroic as it is to take that stand to act as caregiver, it still doesn’t prepare you for the demands of managing medications, tracking doctors’ appointments, coping with changes in behavior, and lifting and moving a parent. Moreover, a nursing home can offer full-time assistance, along with a professional staff with knowledge about a variety of medical conditions.
Financial Costs
During the first days of finally concluding that a much more advanced care is needed for our parents, we might feel a little bit of separation anxiety due to the fact that one of the most important presences in the home we have always been used to for years will now be missing the next days. The tendency is we are first going to consider in-home care but sooner, we will notice that the cost for this type of senior care is ascending and it becomes a reason to choose for a nursing home facility instead. Financial provisions such as Medicaid and long-term health insurance aren’t always sufficient to cover the medical expenses, especially if your parent’s condition worsens. In addition to professional caregivers, it is essential for the family to consider factors like home upgrades, mortgages and taxes when calculating the long-term costs of supporting an elderly relative, reports “The New York Times.” Finding a quality nursing home or assisted-living facility may be more affordable in the long run.
Other Responsibilities
Most of the time, the obligations of career and maintaining a household significantly limit the amount and quality of time that can be spent caring for an elderly parent. The role of full-time caregiver often causes stress, places strain on family relationships, limits your involvement in other activities and changes sleep patterns. The situation is even more draining when you have a more tense relationship with your parent and when the person’s condition includes challenging symptoms, such as mood swings. Instead of sacrificing your emotional health, consider finding a senior home where you can remain actively involved in making decisions about your parent’s future.