While aging in place sounds like the ideal option for senior adults, it isn’t the best choice for everyone. Aging in place allows seniors to remain in their home, in familiar and often beloved surroundings, but doing so doesn’t always provide the worry-free life they deserve. Sometimes the better option is moving to a new environment, one which offers amenities, resources, and services seniors want and need as the grow older.
For those who are active, healthy, and live near family members, aging in place might be the optimal choice, especially given today’s access to meal delivery, home health caregivers, transportation services, and other modern conveniences. Knowing every individual and every situation is unique, the team at Stellar Transportation, the Space Coast’s premier provider of non-emergency medical transport services, offers tips on determining whether aging in place is the ideal choice for your loved one.
Health Concerns
Both physical and mental changes occur as a normal aspects of the aging process. Physical abilities may diminish and the memory may not be as it once was. When physical health changes occur, the question is there someone nearby to help with the home, come the aid of your loved one’s physical limitations, or help following an extending hospital stay needs to be answered. If not, you may want to consider the advantages of a retirement community with onsite medical care or a continuing care community offering a variety of support and medical care for your beloved senior adult.
In similar fashion, you may notice mental health changes with your loved one in the form of repeated information, getting lost in a familiar area or shortfalls in cleaning, preparing meals, or personal hygiene. In some cases family members, along with home health care workers, can help in the early stages of mental decline, but there may come a time when assisted living is the best option. Assisted living communities can provide the needed care for your loved one while giving you and your family members peace of mind.
Cleaning, Cooking, Driving, and More
In addition to overall health, everyday tasks and activities may also become an area of concern. From vacuuming to washing dishes, raking leaves to mopping floors, to more personal tasks, like laundry, meal preparation, and personal hygiene, is there someone who can regularly help your loved one with these tasks or will you and your family need to enlist the help of a home health care worker to handle the tasks. Meal preparation and nutrition concerns are also issues which may plague senior adults, even those who once enjoyed cooking. Nutrition and regular mealtimes help keep seniors healthy and happy. When considering aging in place versus taking up residence in a retirement community, the answers to these questions and the costs involved may mean investing in a retirement or assisted living community where meals, cleaning services, laundry, and more is provided is the best option for your loved one.
In addition to daily tasks, the question of your loved one’s ability to drive safely to and from the store, appointments, or visits to friends and family, often becomes a deciding factor in aging in place or taking up residence in a retirement community. For many seniors for whom driving has become a challenge, retirement communities may be the better option with transportation for shopping, entertainment, appointments, and more.
Social Life and Security
Many older adults enjoy the freedom that comes with retirement and find themselves looking forward to socializing with friends, exercising, or enjoying their favorite hobbies. The opportunity to do just that can be hinder when labor intensive home maintenance and care projects seem to take up all of their time. Rather than aging in place, retirement communities give senior adults the freedom from caring for an often too large home, and offer the opportunity to make new friends, try new activities, and enjoying outings and expeditions to make life rich, full, and enjoyable. In addition to a positive effect on your loved ones social life, a retirement community offers the added benefit of the security of onsite security and medical care, exterior lighting, and monitored entrances to keep residents safe.