A Four-step Plan for Helping Your Senior to Age in Place
If your elderly family member is interested in aging in place, there are some things you both need to assess in the background. The simplest definition of aging in place is that your elderly family member continues to live in her own home with as few changes as possible. This is definitely something she can do, within reason.
Home Care in Deerfield IL: Help Senior To Age In Place
Get a Full Picture of What She Needs
It’s really important that you have the most accurate picture possible of what your senior needs now and in the future. Start with her doctor and talk with anyone else who oversees her health. From there, you might need to do some research on your own. This is the base that allows you to prepare as much as possible for whatever she might need in the future.
Fully Understand What You’re Going to Be Able to Do
You also need to get a full understanding of what you’re going to be able to do, both now and in the future. If you have your own health issues, for instance, that might mean you can help a lot now, but not as much later. If you have other responsibilities, such as children of your own or a spouse with health problems, that is going to make a difference.
Find a Way to Fill in Any Gaps
Those first two steps are going to allow you to see where there might be gaps in your senior’s wishes and your own capabilities. To help her to age in place as much as she wants, you may need to enlist the help of other sources, like senior care providers. These resources can help you to stretch your own capabilities and to cover for what your senior isn’t able to do on her own anymore. That might make the difference between your senior being able to age in place or not.
Revisit the Situation Often
Things are going to change. Unforeseen circumstances are going to crop up, sometimes seemingly overnight, no matter how prepared you try to be. This is why it’s important for you and you’re senior to revisit the situation periodically and see if there’s anything that needs to be adjusted or corrected in order to help her to continue with her plans.
This doesn’t have to be a really difficult plan for you and your senior to put into place. The simplest way to look at the equation is by matching up her needs with your own and making sure you can cover any difference in other ways. From there, your senior and you can enjoy the time she has left hopefully with her in the environment she wants to be in.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Home Care in Deerfield, IL, call the caring staff at LifeCare Home Health & In-Home Services. Call (888) 606-4199 LifeCare serves all of the Chicago Metro Area.
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