As parents get older and find it increasingly difficult to continue to live independently, their loved ones usually finding themselves having to choose between one of three options.
The first is to move the parent into a nursing home, the second is to remodel or otherwise adapt their current home to make it easier for them to continue to live there and the third is to have them move in.
While having your senior parent share your home can lead to special and memorable times for you both, the transition is not always an easy one. Here are a few tips to help you make it as smooth as possible.
Prepare your home
In the same way you would childproof the house prior to the arrival of a new baby, you should check your home to ensure nothing there will represent a hazard to the health of your parent.
Key considerations include items such as how well they will be able to manage going up and down the stairs, their ease of access to the bathroom, the quality of lighting throughout the property and the installation of safety rails. You should also remove as much clutter and unnecessary furniture as possible in the run-up to their arrival.
If there are likely to be significant costs involved in making the home suitable for suitable, it’s important to determine whether the costs will be met at least in part by the parent that is moving in or not.
Stay in touch
If you spend much of your time away from your home, modern technology can alleviate many of the concerns you have about leaving your parent alone. A range of easy-to-use video calling devices makes it easy to check in on your parent on a regular basis and receive visual assurance that everything is okay. You can even access such services from your smartphone or tablet, meaning you can stay in touch wherever you are.
If your parent is sometimes unsteady on their feet, providing them with a personal emergency response system with automatic fall detection, such as the Libris devices produced by Nortek Security & Control, can automatically alert a monitoring service in the event of an incident. The device will also monitor a range of health information, enabling you to keep track of activity and wellness levels.
Communicate clearly with everyone involved
No matter how much space you have available, moving a parent into your home will always require some degree of rearrangement. Other members of your family may lose access to certain parts of the property or be inconvenienced in other ways, so it is vitally important to ensure everyone is fully aware of the potential implications well in advance.
It is also important to speak at length to the parent to ensure they understand the full implications of such a move. Although they may be spending more time with members of their family, they could be moving far away from friends or activities that have formed a regular part of their lives.
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