Taking care of older parents is a task that most of us will face in our lives. Some people are luckier than others, and their parents remain reasonably solid and capable. However, others may see their parents fading right in front of their eyes and feel powerless to do anything to help them out. Many may find their loved ones struggling to express themselves and their needs as well.
In this situation, you need to know when to get assisted living help for seniors. This step is always a challenging experience and will be upsetting for many people to handle. However, it is often necessary as a way of preventing severe long-term damage that may impact your loved ones.
Memory is Becoming an Issue
Typically, your loved one will start to need assisted living help if their memory starts slipping on them. This symptom is usually the number one reason why older adults end up in a care center. Just a few signs that they’re struggling with memory problems include if they:
- Struggle Remembering Family – If your loved one is starting to have a hard time identifying you or is mistaking you for someone else, they may need assisted living help for seniors. Note: messing up names but knowing your identity are not signs of valid memory impairment.
- Forget Important Medical Information – Is your loved one struggling to remember when to go to the doctor or take their medication? They may need home care services that can provide them with the independence that they may want and need as an adult.
- No Longer Remembering Important Life Moments – As we age, our memory naturally ends up getting impacted. However, suppose your loved one can no longer remember important life moments, such as their marriage or even participating in a war. In that case, it may be time to consider senior home care services.
- Have Difficulty Knowing When to “Go” – Incontinence is not uncommon in many older adults. However, if your loved one has perfectly fine bowel and urine control but simply “forgets” to go to the bathroom, you may need to them into a home for assisted living help for seniors.
In these care centers, seniors can get a hands-on treatment that helps make sure that their memory loss doesn’t impact their health. But, just as importantly, they can get memory care treatment that may help reduce the risk of worsening symptoms and potentially reverse a few simultaneously.
Taking Care of Themselves is Harder
Your parents probably took great pride in their appearance when younger and even well into their maturity. But, unfortunately, many older adults find themselves slipping on their sanitary care and start looking rougher and rougher without help. Just a few symptoms of this problem include when:
- Basic Sanitary Steps are Too Hard – When your parents start letting themselves wear the same clothes for days in a row or miss baths, they may need help from professionals. Assisted care centers can hook them up with a dermatologist who can manage many of the issues poor sanitation may trigger.
- Doctor’s Visits Start Getting Skipped – Are your parents skipping out on essential treatment, such as doctor visits and podiatric care? If so, you may need to get assisted living help for seniors. Doing so will help to make sure that your loved ones don’t get injured in any way.
- Rest and Relaxation are Ignored – Do your parents push themselves too hard every day, even though they are retired? They may need care from experts like a medical spa to provide them with physical therapy and rest and relaxation.
- Teeth Start to Suffer – If your parents miss dental treatments or refuse to wear their dentures, it may be time to talk to an assisted living facility. These professionals can get your loved one into cosmetic dentists to ensure that their teeth stay strong and healthy for years to come.
The nice thing about assisted living help for seniors is that you can adjust it to meet their needs. For instance, you can have people come to their homes and stay with them or get them to live in a facility where they can be watched 24/7 to minimize their risk of severe health problems.
Harder Time Staying Connected
Social connections are critical at all ages but remain even more critical for older adults. As people age, they need these connections to stay centered and happy without worrying about their life’s end. Here are a few symptoms that your loved ones may be disconnected from this social situation:
- Missing Family Connections – Is your loved one missing family get-together situations for no reason that you can understand? Then they may need assisted living help for seniors that make it easier for them to get the interaction that they need to stay healthy.
- Ignoring Favorite Activities – Does your parent miss church or other social connections and prefer to stay at home instead? This type of isolation signifies that your parent may be alienating others on purpose or need a better group of friends that help them stay connected.
- Losing Interest in Hobbies – When your parents start ignoring hobbies (like fishing or music) they loved in the past, they may struggle. You may need to talk to assisted living help for seniors to provide them with a center for their energy and keep them engaged.
- Aggression or Anger – As your parent’s age, they may end up resenting you and others for “never” visiting them. They may even attempt to alienate you through harsh behavior for no good reason. This situation may change with a high-quality assisted living center that helps them expand their social skills.
Remember – alienation and isolation are never a good thing for a senior to experience. They should be basking in the attention of loved ones and friends, not sitting at home alone and brooding. Try to get them to an assisted living center or a home care aide who can keep them occupied.
Emotional Changes
Seniors are often heavily emotional because they may have experienced many traumatic things that make it harder for them to control themselves. You may need assisted living help for seniors if the following problems start getting a bit out of control for your loved ones:
- Sudden Mood Swings – Is your loved one happy one minute and then angry or crying the next? Unfortunately, mood swings are not uncommon in seniors for many reasons, including changes in hormones and severe trauma. An intense assisted living center can help to protect them from these swings.
- Morbidity and Anxiety – Anxiety and a sense of morbidity are both typical for many seniors. Morbidity can take the form of watching the obituaries and laughing when people they know pass. Assisted living centers help reconnect them to people and can help minimize this morbid focus.
- Fixation on Death – At the end of life, many older adults find themselves fixated on death and unable to handle this experience. In an assisted living center, they can get attention from counselors and others who can help them look at the positives and enjoy the rest of their life.
- Paranoia and Aggression – Does your loved one believe you are attempting to hurt them or blame other people for things they have done? They may be developing extreme paranoia that may require behavioral therapy and medication in an assisted living center.
If your loved one starts developing these symptoms, they may be developing severe emotional issues. You may need to take them to a treatment facility to get help or reach out to an assisted living facility that will help make it easier for them to live their lives as they want.
Accidents or Other Medical Problems
In many situations, older adults end up experiencing severe health issues that may impact their ability to take care of themselves. These situations may make it necessary to get assisted living help to ensure that they are safe and protected. Just a few problems that may require this care include:
- Serious Physical Accidents – Slips, falls, and other physical accidents are much more severe for older adults than young ones. You may have to put your loved one in a facility to recover or to prevent more severe problems from occurring later in their life.
- Heart Attacks or Strokes – After a severe heart attack or stroke, many older adults might need assisted living help for seniors to recover. Sometimes, this help is temporary and is just a way to get them back on their feet. However, in other situations, it may be permanent and impact them over a long time.
- Dementia or Alzheimer – These conditions can cause many struggles for a senior that will make their life very difficult. For example, they may struggle to remember basic things about their life and need professional help to avoid running into serious health problems and other difficulties.
- COPD and Other Breathing Problems – Does your loved one need oxygen to get around the house or handle their basic day-to-day care needs? If they have COPD or other similar lung-related conditions, you may need assisted living help for seniors to make their lives easier to handle.
Ensure that you talk to their doctor before taking these steps to figure out a care method that works the best for them. Often, you may find that your loved ones need high-quality medical attention or just a temporary respite area that allows them to relax and enjoy themselves a little.
Legal Troubles Start Occurring
As people age, they may find themselves in a challenging situation legally and financially. These problems occur for many reasons, including poor decision-making and much more. It might be time to get assisted living help for seniors if your loved one experiences:
- Poor Will Planning – Has your loved one yet set up a will or a trust that will help handle the money they’ll be living behind? If not, you’ll need to talk to an estate planning law and help your loved one prepare your will. Then, they may need assisted living help to minimize their troubles.
- Financial Struggles – Is your loved one struggling to handle essential financial payments? It might be time to sell their home, vehicle, and belongings to get them into an assisted living center. Surprisingly, the assisted living cost can be a lot lower than you might think.
- Scams Start Popping Up – Older adults are the number one target for scams and often lose thousands of dollars as a result. If your loved one didn’t listen to their financial advisors and has lost money, it might be time to get them into a healthcare facility that can track their spending.
- Healthcare Costs Become Burdensome – Many seniors find that healthcare costs because challenging to handle without the help of a better insurance policy or a healthcare reimbursement lawyer. Don’t let your loved one suffer but, instead, get them into an assisted living center.
When getting assisted living help for seniors, your loved ones will have their bills compressed and minimized as much as possible, making it easier for them to stay strong financially and legally. And you can more easily watch them make sure that they don’t make more mistakes.
Knowing When You Need Assisted Living Help for Seniors
As you can see, there are many signs and symptoms that your parents or other loved ones need assisted living help for seniors. It is essential to talk to them about this decision before making it and help ease them into their new lifestyle without springing it on them unexpectedly.
This move is rarely an easy one for older adults and may be fought very hard. It may require you to talk with other people in your family and even their doctor. Patience and empathy are important in this situation, as they’ll help make it easier for you to give them the help they need.
