As your parents age, you may come to a point where they are no longer able to care for themselves the way they once could. While some families are able to pick up the slack, if this isn’t an option for you for one reason or another, looking into a care facility may be the best decision so that your parents can get the help they need.
If this is something you’re having to help your parents figure out, here are three tips to help you in moving your parents into a care facility.
Starting The Conversation
For many aging adults, moving into a care facility isn’t something that they’ll necessarily want or be excited about. Generally, people want to stay in their home as long as they’re able. But once this isn’t a possibility anymore, it’s time to start discussing other options.
As you start this conversation, Brenda Klutz, a contributor to Caregiver.org, recommends that you gather together anyone that may be helping with the care of your parents or that is a loving and trusted relation. Then, you should all sit down together with your parents to talk about how their needs for care have changed and what can be done to ensure that they’re getting the care they need. While this can be awkward and uncomfortable at first, if the end result is that your parents are being well taken care of, then it will all be worth it.
Plan To Take Some Tours
Once the decision has been made that moving into a care facility is going to be the best option, the task now becomes deciding which facility will be the best fit for your parents.
To help you in making this decision, Carol Bradley Bursack, a contributor to AgingCare.com, suggests that you all spend some time taking tours of facilities that you’re considering. This will allow your parents to see what their options are, get a feel for what life would be like living there, and experience how the care is given to the residents of the facilities you visit.
Making The Move Happen
When you’ve all settled on the right care facility for your parents, the next step is moving them in.
According to Jeff Anderson, a contributor to APlaceForMom.com, this will best be done with a good plan in place. As a part of this plan, try to get a good understanding of what your parents will need and how much space they’ll have in the facility. Then, you’ll need to carefully and tactfully try to downsize so that all their essentials and personal items will be able to stay with them. This part can be especially hard emotionally, so try your best to be patient and understanding.
If you’re going to need to be moving your parents into a care facility soon, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you with this process.
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