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Stories and Strategies to Help You Juggle the Challenges of Long-Term Care

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Helping Senior Parents Downsize

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Most of us want to see our parents grow old in the family home. Not only because it’s full of warm memories, but because it’s easier, too. Staying put may mean installing a ramp and making a few other little changes, but it doesn’t involve fixing up an aging home or making a difficult transition with parents who’d rather not move.

Even a small kitchen can be a light and bright place to prepare a healthy meal. Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Unfortunately, not all homes are suited for aging in place. Whether a home has too much square footage, a high-maintenance landscape, or staircases that grow more treacherous by the year, there are some home features you simply can’t remodel around. When that happens, downsizing to a smaller home is the best solution. As you prepare to begin a house hunt, Marylee MacDonald shares the following resources to ensure the process goes smoothly.

Planning Ahead: What to Consider Before the Move

Downsizing is a major life decision. Your parents and you will need to carefully consider their future needs and finances before going ahead. Even someone who is in good health in their seventies can anticipate that their eighties will bring changes in mobility.

What to Look for in an Age-Friendly Home

If your folks decide to age in place, they’ll need to find a home with senior-friendly features, or they’ll need to hire a contractor to make modifications. Won’t that be a hassle?

Not necessarily. Planning for a new living space and working with someone who can help them implement their plans can be a fun adventure. Even with less square footage overall, or with a one-story home instead of a two-story with a basement, a well-planned living space can provide all the functionality of a much larger space. Living in a home with less upkeep means they’ll have time for activities they truly enjoy. And, if the move means they’ll be able to live closer to their grown children and grandchildren, then that new house can provide a kind of “social insurance” that will add security to their future years. No longer will they have to worry if a health crisis means one of their kids will have to make a flight across country to assist.

How to Budget for a Downsized Home

Most people of retirement age purchased a home thirty or forty years ago. Retirement means they’re living on a fixed income. They may not want to get tied down with another mortgage. Selling their existing home prior to purchase is one way to avoid that. Before purchasing a home,  your parents–and you, if you’re going to help them–must fully grasp the financial implications of downsizing. A good place to start is with making a spreadsheet of monthly expenses and income.

What to Do with Everything You Can’t Take

Deciding which items to keep, donate, give to family, or throw away can be both an emotional and liberating process. But most families have already furnished their homes according to their own tastes. Planning for an estate sale is one way to deal with de-acquisitioning. But, organizing the sale, physically handling the display of items to be sold, handling the money, and so on, will be physically exhausting. One option is to hire an estate agent. To find one, you can cruise the garage sales advertised in your area or find an Estate Sale Company by searching online.

Helping your senior parents move into a downsized home is a major undertaking. However, in exchange for your short-term effort, you’ll gain long-term peace of mind knowing that your parents are living in a home that puts their health and well-being first. If they put off downsizing and don’t start decluttering when they’re in good health, they face a long-term risk. A health crisis could send one or both to a nursing home. Then, the burden of sorting through decades worth of possessions will fall to the adult children.

Stress-Free Senior Caregiving: 4 Tips to Make the Job Easier

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It can be difficult to watch your parents and other family members get older. As seniors age, they tend to lose some of their abilities to properly care for themselves, and family caregivers often need to step in to provide extra support.

Providing support can be tricky when you live far away. However, you can use these four caregiving tips to provide adequate senior care, even when you’re a plane flight away.

Fragile seniors have a host of needs from physical to psychological. Providing support from a distance takes forethought, but the rewards are great. Photo Credit: Raw Pixel

Invest in Home Safety to Prevent Senior Injuries

As a family caregiver, ensuring senior safety at home should be a top priority. Seniors who plan to age in place can be more prone to household accidents, such as falls. To keep your senior loved one from being injured in a fall, help him/her make a few simple but effective aging in place changes around the home.

Adding grab bars throughout bathrooms, installing ramps around stairs, and eliminating clutter from floors are changes to consider, and these measures can ensure your loved one’s safety at home. Seniors can also be at risk for burns, so have water heaters checked and adjusted to a lower temperature. Think of ways to simplify food prep and cooking, which can help prevent fires and carbon monoxide poisoning. Since accidents can still occur, it’s also important that your loved one keep a first-aid kit and fire extinguisher on hand.

Research Home Security to Protect Solitary Seniors

Keeping seniors safe from outside threats can also help give long-distance family caregivers some peace of mind. One of the most comprehensive steps you can take to ensure that your aging loved one is protected from break-ins and other dangers is to invest in home security. There are countless options to choose from when it comes to modern home security systems, so be sure to do your homework.

Look for features and prices that will fit your long-distance caregiving needs. Some systems may come with mobile monitoring capabilities, which can be beneficial for keeping an eye on a senior who is living alone. You can also check into medical alert options. These detect falls and other household accidents and alert local emergency services so that your loved one will always be connected to lifesaving care. 

Make Senior Mental Health Management a Priority

Adequate mental health services are also crucial for seniors who are aging in place and who live far from family caregivers. Thankfully, seniors who are enrolled in Medicare Part B have access to mental health care benefits. Medicare Part B makes seeking out help from a counselor or using psychiatric health services less of a financial burden.

Under Medicare Part B, seniors are also entitled to an annual depression screening from their primary healthcare provider. This screening can help combat the epidemic of loneliness that affects seniors who live alone.

Seniors who feel isolated and alone are more prone to feelings of depression, as well as other mental and physical health issues. So encourage your loved one to use these mental health services, but also look for ways to keep him/her connected. A visit from a Meals on Wheels provider is one way to prevent isolation and depression.

Keep Seniors Healthy with Accessible Health Care

The right Medicare plan can also help you stay in control of your senior loved one’s physical health and wellness. With so many Medicare resources available online, this is something you can easily do on your laptop or phone. Use a phone call or video chat session to discuss Medicare plans with your senior family member.

With a comprehensive and complete Medicare plan in place, you can help your aging loved one keep up with regular screenings and appointments. You may also need to arrange affordable transportation for your loved one. You can do so from afar by looking into local options for rideshare services, public transportation, and medical center shuttle services.

You can’t always live close to your senior loved ones, but that doesn’t mean you can’t provide compassionate care from afar. With a few preventative measures and simple strategies, you can still ensure that your aging family members feel loved, protected, and free from worry. Best of all, you can feel more at peace with being a long-distance senior caregiver.

For more about specific technologies that can help you manage long distance caregiving, read this post. https://maryleemacdonald.org/tech-tips-for-helping-seniors-from-a-distance/

Benefits of Aging in Place

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As seniors age, they and their families are faced with the difficult question of how to provide the best care. The necessary level of care depends on the situation, but aging in place is becoming more feasible due to a combination of factors. There are constant medical advancements, people are living healthier lifestyles, and people are retiring later, leaving them financially able to make the choice. Sometimes all it takes to age in place is finding a caregiver you can trust.

woodworker in home shop
Seniors with professional skills, such as this furniture restorer, will be much more content if they can remain in close proximity to their tools.

Familiarity

The most obvious benefit of aging in place is familiarity with one’s surroundings. Familiarity may not seem like a big deal, but aging in a familiar place can alleviate depression and disorientation that sometimes occurs in assisted living communities. Also, if you have the means for you or a loved one to age in place, you can avoid the dreaded argument that frequently occurs when parents are too stubborn to leave their home. It removes the tension that occurs when older people think moving them is a sign of pushing them away.

Keeping a Routine

Studies show that people remain healthy, both physically and emotionally, by keeping with a routine. A routine can be anything from housekeeping to yard work or simply seeing neighbors and cooking. These are all forms of physical and mental exercise that patients do not receive in institutional settings. Doing small things to keep active can help reduce what is known as aging atrophy, eventually leading to a complete dependence on others. This is not to say that it’s harmful to depend on others for certain activities of daily living. Oftentimes, a loved one or a professional caregiver can help someone maintain a healthy routine.

Safety and Health

By aging in place, seniors can control their environments. They are not forced to acclimate to an environment controlled by others. The house can be as clean as they like and they are able to decide which visitors they want to see. At facilities, residents are forced to see health care professionals, other residents, and the families of other residents. Also, a major fear, when living in close quarters with other people, is the spreading of sickness or disease and this is alleviated by remaining independent.

What Kinds of Resources Are Available?

As mentioned, sometimes people need caregivers to age in place. Caregivers are able to offer a variety of services, including: homemaking, personal care, meal preparation, and medication management just to name a few. If bathing or maintaining personal hygiene becomes troublesome, a part time caregiver can help. Or perhaps housework, laundry, or grocery shopping have become problem areas. Some grocery and drugstores offer delivery services, but if not, a caregiver can help with these things as well. Depending upon the type of services needed, there are different types of caregivers available with different job titles.

If a caregiver is needed and a loved one cannot step into that role, it is best to talk to an agency or a care manager. A care manager is trained to plan, organize, monitor, and deliver services to an elderly person. They can be immensely useful. Likewise, it could be useful to look into wearing a PERS device or medical alert. Aging can be a time of navigating new terrain, but aging in place can hopefully eliminate some pressure.

How to Get a Better Night’s Sleep | 3 Questions to Ask

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A good night’s sleep can make all the difference. If you’re not sleeping well, here are some tips to fix that. Photo Credit: Pixabay

Are you tired of waking up feeling like you didn’t get enough sleep? For seniors, getting a good night’s rest is essential for healthy aging, but doing so can be much easier said than done. There are so many reasons why seniors may not be getting the sleep they need, but if you are suffering from a lack of sleep, asking yourself these simple questions may just provide a solution:

Should You Replace Your Old Mattress?

If you wake up with a sore back each morning, your mattress may be to blame. Investing in the right new mattress can greatly improve your sleep, especially when you think about mattress styles, your body type, and pain issues before making a mattress purchase. When purchasing a Purple mattress, for example, weight is an important factor, since Purple mattresses tend to feel softer for larger bodies and firmer for those with smaller frames.

Replacing your mattress when you feel discomfort throughout the night is usually a smart move when your sleep is suffering, but the age and condition of your bed should be considered as well.

Also, think about whether new pillows could support your sleep habits and, if so, which types of pillows to add to your new bed. Finally, make sure your current or new mattress is covered in comfortable bedding, and consider adding a weighted blanket for extra relief from any anxiety that is keeping you awake at night. While research on weighted blankets is still limited, many folks have reported that using one at night helped curbed feelings of anxiety and also helped improve sleep.

Do You Need to Update Your Bedroom?

The environment around your bed can play into your overall sleep quality as well. Keep in mind that maintaining an accessible bedroom is extremely important for seniors, so before you make any changes for better sleep, ensure that lighting is even and clutter is picked up. Throw rugs on the floor (like the one in the picture above) can be a tripping hazard, and many home safety experts suggest removing them. However, if you’re want rugs for decoration, make sure you put floor grippers on the underside.)

Knowing your bedroom is safe may help you feel less anxious, so once you have made these accessibility changes, you can begin creating your sleep haven. Keep noise to a minimum by keeping your windows closed, wearing ear plugs, or turning on a sound machine to block out distracting noises. Blue light from televisions can also be disruptive to sleep quality, but if watching television relaxes you, using blue-blocking glasses may help.

Should You Change Your Daily/Nightly Lifestyle Habits?

If you are a senior who wants better sleep, revamping your bedroom is one of the simplest steps you can take. When those changes don’t seem to help, though, you may need to think about making modifications to your lifestyle choices instead. For instance, if you get most of your exercise in the evening, think about working out in the morning instead. Some studies suggest that morning exercise can be beneficial for those who have trouble falling or staying asleep, so changing up your schedule could very well boost your sleep quality.

If exercise isn’t an issue, you may also need to consider when you consume caffeine. Most people need to wait four to six hours for the stimulating effects of caffeine to wear off, but if you are having problems sleeping at night, you should try cutting out caffeine by noon or altogether. Of course, there are also some very cyclical connections between sleeplessness and mental health, so taking control of your emotional well-being and getting the help you need can help you sleep better at night, too.

Don’t let losing sleep reduce the quality of your golden years. Take some simple steps to address your sleep problems and improve your sleep habits. If those don’t work, ask your doctor for more advice on getting the sleep you need, because doing so is essential for preserving your health and your quality of life.

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