You’ve probably heard frightening things about what happens when your loved ones grow old and need assistance. Moving a loved one to a facility brings up guilt and worry for many families. But in truth, there’s nothing to be afraid of.
You and your aging loved one can navigate their new needs with compassion, grace, and ease. If you’re helping someone transition to senior assisted living, make the process as smooth and painless as possible by following these steps.
How Do You Move a Loved One to Assisted Living?
1. Empower Your Senior Loved One
It might be that your loved one has reached a point where they can no longer live independently because of mobility, cognition, or health issues. Assisted living is the next logical step, but how you get them there requires compassion.
If an older adult has difficulty communicating like they used to, it can be tempting to take control and make all their decisions for them. However, that’s the last thing you should do when your aging loved one is in this state.
You should try to empower your senior loved one by asking them questions and taking their answers seriously. They might not always remember everything or be as sharp as they used to be, but they can still tell you what they need, why, and when they need it.
Empowerment means keeping them involved in the whole process.
2. Visit the Community, Talk to the Residents
The World Health Organization has found that the world population is aging faster than new babies are being born. By 2030, 1 in 6 people globally will be over 60.
That’s a good thing for your aging loved one. It means that the senior assisted living industry will grow and grow, adding more facilities and specially trained workers as demand grows.
When you finally settle on the community where your aging loved one will stay for the final phase of their life, try to visit as many times as you can. Visit before you even take them there so you can get the inside scoop on what it’s really like to live there. You can’t find that out from the care workers and the front desk folks who always say positive things about the facility. Talk to the residents.
From them, you’ll find out quickly whether this community is a good place to house your aging loved one or not.
3. Pack, Move, and Dispose of Their Belongings
A considerable part of the process of transitioning your aging loved one to a senior living facility is packing up and deciding what to do with their things. You can take some possessions to assisted living, but not every piece of furniture and valuable in the house.
You can hire professionals at any step in this process, from packing, to sorting, to moving. But the most important and the most laborious step is disposal. That’s why you’ll want to call on professional junk removal services before the switch from home to assisted living.
4. Decorate Their Space Like Home
You’ve picked out what’s going to the dump and what will stay. Now, you can involve your loved one in what is coming with them to assisted living.
You might think they’ll only want the small, obviously meaningful keepsakes, like letters and jewelry. However, people get attached to all sorts of objects!
They might want a small slice of normalcy in the form of the old dining room lamp or an afghan that they always threw across the bed.
The importance of involving your aging loved one can’t be stressed enough, especially so they can feel at home in their new dwellings.
5. Help Them Get Acquainted With Their New Neighbors
It’s good for you to know the staff and residents before your loved one takes up residence at a senior living facility. But it’s even more vital for them to get to know their neighbors. They’re the ones who are going to live there, after all!
Help them get acquainted with their neighbors so that you know they have friends on the inside to keep them company.
6. Get to Know the Staff
Research on people around the world has shown that the most common, and often the most burdensome, condition that people develop as they get older is what is known as a non-communicable disease.
These conditions afflict the mind and motor functions but are virtually invisible to others. Getting to know the staff at the senior living facility is vital for this very reason. If your aging loved one suffers from a condition that no one can see and is losing their communication ability, someone needs to advocate for them.
You can’t do that all the time, so make sure you know the staff well so they can advocate for and help your aging loved one.
7. Don’t Forget to Take Care of Yourself
This whole process takes a toll on you too. Don’t forget that. Prioritize your mental well-being, and don’t forget to take lots of well-deserved breaks. You may even want to look into counseling for this specific experience.
Need Help Disposing of a Loved One’s Belongings? Get in Touch
Getting rid of your aging loved ones’ belongings can be physically and emotionally taxing. But you don’t have to do it alone.
Call Nixxit Junk Removal to get the assistance you need to help you through this challenging chapter in life. Nixxit will take care of all the hard work including the heavy lifting, sorting, donating, and even recycling of your loved ones belongings. Passing off this undertaking will allow you to focus on helping your loved one smoothly transition.
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