Do you worry about the happiness of your senior parent? Seniors go through a lot of physical and emotional changes. They often face numerous medical conditions that further contribute to or take away from their happiness. How can you ensure that your senior parent is enjoying life to its fullest? How can you ensure that they are satisfied with their current living situation, despite added medical needs?
Keep up with their medical needs
Pressing medical problems can significantly affect a senior?s desire and will to do anything entertaining. They may become overwhelmed with regular medical appointments and procedures. Help them keep up with their medical and medicine schedules. Make the medical process more entertaining by going shopping or on an outing after a physician visit. Keep track of all physicians to quickly handle any medical emergencies. If your senior parent is living in a memory care facility, get to know their onsite physicians.
Visit frequently
A common cause of dissatisfaction among seniors is feelings of loneliness. Current medical conditions may prevent them from driving or being as mobile as they once were. Retirement causes a drastic change of daily activities. Many seniors report an increase in their living situation, when they receive frequent visits from their family and friends. Try to change up the visits. Change them up by bringing meals, taking your senior out, and brining entertaining activities to participate in. A 2008 study showed that seniors with the highest level of social integration experienced memory decline at half the rate of the least socially integrated. If you are unable to visit frequently, consider an in home care service or an assisted living facility.
Encourage senior center membership
A study found that physically active people in their 70s and 80s reported onset of loneliness at a rate of 12.2%, compared to the 22.6% reported by their sedentary counterparts. Seniors who feel isolated tend to be unhappier and feel isolated. Many cities have senior centers that encourage activities, social interactions, and memory care activities. These memory nursing activities can be an important factor in delaying diseases like Alzheimer?s and Dementia. They also give seniors something to look forward to on a daily basis.
Provide hobby materials
Those seniors who are satisfied with life after retirement are usually people who invest a large majority of their time into a hobby. This could be a hobby that they minimally participated in during working time or it could be a new one that they picked up after retirement. According to 2015 data, the happiest retirees engage in three to four activities regularly. You can further increase their happiness and reduce isolation by finding local groups or clubs that also engage in the same type of hobby.
The new model of nursing homes
Despite previous negative publicity of nursing home, they can actually be conductive to post retirement happiness. While some seniors move to an assisted memory care facility for medical or mobility purposes, others do so for companionship. Living in an assisted living nursing home setting often increases social interactions and overall happiness. Seniors are offered numerous daily activities, without having to drive anywhere. They are also able to share their daily meals with other residents of the memory care facility. Additionally, when medical concerns do become a problem, they are able to receive the assistance and security that they require.
Adult children tend to worry about the happiness and health of their senior parents. Once a parent retires, they are met with an increasingly lengthy amount of time. If they are limited on activities and mobility, they can quickly feel alone and slip into a depressed state of being. You can ensure their happiness with frequent visits, an encouragement to hobbies, enrolling them into a local senior center, and considering a full time memory care facility.
