Knowing When It’s The Right Time For Assisted Living

One of the toughest ethical task we face as humans is how we take care of our aged relatives. Eventually, there may come a time when our beloved aged relatives can no longer live or carry out basic tasks on their own. It then falls on us as filial members of their families to make decisions regarding how we can help them handle such challenges. Some of these relatives could be people who took care of us while we were much younger or people whom we had an intimate or close relationship with. Irrespective of the case, it could be quite emotionally tasking to see people or someone you love being unable to take care of themselves due to the burden of old age or some form of impairment.

We sometimes genuinely want to devote our time to care for them in their hour of need, but there’s a limit to what we can do to help until it becomes overbearing on us. We have our own life to live, our careers to face, goals to meet and sometimes our own, even much more, closer family to cater for. This means we are faced with the tough decision of making provisions to avail them with the necessary assistance they need in the most effective way possible. Since we usually have our cups full with our problems, we must explore assisted living as an option to help our senior relatives live a more comfortable life.

However, assisted living doesn’t come cheap, it’s fairly expensive and rightly so. The best memory care facilities provide residents with necessary physical, emotional, and to some extent, medical support throughout the duration of their stay. They provide round the clock security and assistance in daily living activities like bathing, toileting, dressing, and eating. That being said, the big question now is; when is the right time to send our aged relatives to assisted living facilities?

There are a handful of signs that indicate that assisted living could be the best decision to make when to help our aged relatives. For your reading pleasure, we’ve put together some important ones below:

Your Aged Relative Lives Alone And Needs Assistance With Daily Living Activities

One of the most pertinent reasons to consider checking your relatives into an assisted living facility is if the leave alone. If for some reasons, you or any member of your family who could provide necessary assistance to your aged relatives do not stay with them, then it’s usually a good time to plan for assisted living. It even becomes much more necessary if they need help with everyday activities, like getting out bed, dressing, showering, personal care, and housekeeping task. They may also require help with taking their medications. Aged people are especially prone to forgetfulness and may easily forget taking critical medication or worse off, take much more than was prescribed. Aged people who are hypertensive or diabetic could suffer from serious health complications as a result of mismanagement of medications. This necessary assistance must be provided to them and with constant supervision. Assistance with daily personal and medical care needs as well as housekeeping are usually the major reasons  so it is important to find experienced senior care help in Somerset County.

Your Aged Relative Feels Lonely Or Depressed

Without a spouse, or someone to offer emotional companionship your aged relatives can become quite lonely or even depressed. According to data from the U.S Census website, about 11 million aged people live alone and isolation could be a serious problem. Continued isolation and depression could result in even much more serious emotional or medical conditions. Living in an assisted living facility allows your aged relatives to socialize with peers as well as participate in a variety of activities that interest them. They’ll also be exposed to similarly aged residents who could easily understand them and stimulate interaction that keeps them mentally and physically active.

Your Aged Relatives Have A Health Condition Requiring Constant Supervision

As your aged relatives get older, it becomes almost impossible to avoid certain age-related health conditions. A study by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) indicated that more than 70 million people (aged 50 and older) have at least one chronic medical condition ranging from Alzheimer’s to heart problems. If your aged relative has a health-related issue like failing eyesight, arthritis or Alzheimer’s that requires constant supervision then it is in their interest to be on an environment where they are constantly supervised.

An assisted living facility in Somerset county NJ provides regular assistance with healthcare needs. Some assisted living homes even offer specialized Alzheimer’s care services are to residents in need of one. Similarly, if they are suffering from conditions that make them prone to falls, their safety and overall wellbeing may be at a significantly greater risk of staying at home. This could be quite dangerous if they live in houses where they may have yo use the staircases to move around. These are all safety issues that can be ameliorated if they are staying in a well-supervised assisted living facility in Somerset County NJ.

More so, a lot of assisted living homes are manned by professionals, including medical professionals whose expertise in caregiving could be invaluable to your aged loved ones. Also, a large number of assisted living facilities usually have agreements with home health agencies for the provision of skilled nursing care and hospice providers for hospice services.

No Immediate Assistance Available To Them

Managing the responsibilities of a modern home is already quite hectic, throw in work and other obligations and it becomes overwhelming. Instead of hiring a single person to cater for your aged relatives at home or relying on other family members, an assisted living home will give you peace of mind by knowing that your aged relatives are in professional hands and therefore afford you the time to do also other equally important things.

All in all, if your aged relative lives in isolation, is quite old and has lost either the willingness or ability to take good care of themselves, then it might be time to consider availing them with the professional services of an assisted living facility in Somerset County NJ.