Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Putting an Elderly Parent in a Nursing Home


When considering the nursing home option for parents or other loved ones, here are a few of the main advantages to keep to mind:

• Better resources and equipment: Private homes simply don't have the types of medical equipment and supplies needed to help seniors stay healthy. Many nursing homes are almost as advanced as hospitals in their ability to provide sophisticated care for patients on a 24-hour basis.

• High-quality long-term care: Due to modern medicine, seniors now live longer than ever. While we're thankful for this, longer life-spans often come with longer periods of late-life illness and disability. Caring for a senior relative at home is often a long-term commitment of many years, sometimes requiring intensive care.

• Emergency response and 24-hour monitoring: Nursing homes are equipped to deal with emergencies and other sudden incidents. Internal call systems allow residents to contact staff at any time should something arise. These systems are monitored 24 hours, and experienced staff is always on hand to respond.

• Lighter emotional burden on family: When an elderly relative being cared for at home experiences suffering, a sudden emergency, or a decline in health, family members are liable to feel guilt and to wonder if they could have done more. Putting the elderly relative in the hands of professionals makes this issue nonexistent.

• Family can live their own lives: While we want to help our relatives as much as possible, we also must think of ourselves, our spouses, and our children. Caring for an elderly relative at home can be a time-consuming process for everyone involved, which may take time and energy away from careers, school, hobbies, family bonding, travel, and other important personal matters. If our elderly relative can be just as happy and healthy, if not more so, in a home, why not take the burden off of ourselves?

• Social opportunities: Socially, seniors need more than just family. At nursing homes, seniors are out in the world interacting with a variety of people. Other residents provide a chance to form new friendships with others in the same age group. Meanwhile, strong, personal relationships may also be developed with staff members.

• Activities: Nursing homes routinely provide the types of activities and, in some cases, outings that are specifically tailored to seniors, and which may not be available in private homes. Nursing homes usually provide movies, reading material, games, activities, and other types of events. In addition, they often have private gardens where residents can go for strolls, get fresh air, and even do some gardening.

1 comment:

  1. Though seniors prefer the familiar surroundings of their home, in cases where they have medical problems and their children and grand children are too busy to spend quality time with them, it is better that they move to a nursing home where they will enjoy the company of other elderly people who are in the same state
    Nursing Home

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