Getting Help From Home

The options for your elderly parent's living situation is vast. You can choose a nursing home, senior care facility, and more, or you can simply keep them at home where your family or live-in nurse can provide the care that they need. Knowing some of the benefits of different living situations may help to make the choice a bit easier. Here are five benefits of choosing senior apartment living:

1. Transportation is Arranged: If your elderly parent can no longer drive, having transportation that is arranged for them as they would like can be helpful. Your senior would simply have to let the staff of the apartment facility know when they have doctor appointments or any kind of social gathering and their transportation will be arranged for them. Typically, senior apartments will have buses that leave at specific times throughout the day and your senior will be scheduled to get on a certain bus at a certain time with other seniors living in the facility. 
2. Help With Meals: If your elderly parent is no longer mobile enough to go food shopping on their own or cook meals, then a senior apartment can provide the help that they need with meals. Many senior apartment facilities will have a communal area where snacks and meals will be served. This also gives your elderly parent the chance to socialize with the other people living there. 
3. It's a Community: A senior apartment facility works as a community. These apartments have age restrictions, meaning that your elderly parent will only be living with people their age and, most of the time, with the same interests. There are typically many community events arranged, such as bingo night, outdoor games, movies, and more. 
4. Medical Needs Met: Every senior apartment community will have different ways in which they can meet medical needs of their tenants. If your elderly parent often has to see a doctor, you will want to consider a senior apartment that has nurses on staff at all times. If your senior also needs constant attention because of falls, you will want there to be live-in nurses available to stay in your elderly parent's apartment, as well. 
5. Daily Living Help: If your elderly parent needs help with things, such as bathing, cleaning, and other daily living needs, a senior apartment will be able to address these needs and have a nurse available to do these things. However, if your elderly parent is mostly independent, then they will also have the option to live on their own independently without 24 hour nurses there with them. 

By knowing some of the benefits of senior apartment living, you can determine whether or not it is the right option for your elderly parent. If you aren't sure if you want to move your loved one just yet, consider contacting a local specialist in home care, such as BrightStar Care of Naples/Ft. Myers, to discuss your concerns.