How To Help Your Elderly Parent Adjust to Assisted Living

The day is going to come when you may have to make that decision that no one wants to make and that's the need to place your elderly parent in an assisted living environment. We can't stay young forever and you can even feel it in yourself that the aging is beginning to rear it's head so it makes it even a harsher reality that you will soon have to turn to someone else to help your parent with daily things.

When it becomes apparent that you are going to need more help you should start researching the different places that are available. It would be ideal if you could keep them relatively in the same neighborhood. If you can do this the move is going to be easier on them because they will still have familiar places around them.

You need to find out how good the medical care is and what the social life is like in the different facilities. You want to make sure that they are well taken care of and that there are plenty of social activities for them so that they are not just stuck in their room all day like a lot of facilities do. You also want to make sure that relatives and friends can be involved as well.

Once you have found a place you feel secure and safe with you don't just want to drop your parent off and that's that! You need to make sure that you visit them as often as you can and at the least call them everyday just to chat for a few minutes. Make plans to take them out to lunch or to a movie once a week. Make sure that you sit down with them and make plans to do something each week and try to keep it the same day each week. This gives them something to look forward to.

Make sure that they have a good meal plan and preferably one that allows them to choose from a list of items like a restaurant and not just the same old thing chosen by those who run the kitchen. You also need to make sure that relatives and friends come sometimes come by at meal time and join them.

If your parent puts you in charge of their money once in one of these facilities, this does not mean that you take care of it all and never talk to them about it. You still need to keep them in the loop and let them know what was spent on what and at times you might want to get permission from them about certain issues. This will help them to still feel like they have some control over their life.