Age is an inevitable process that no one escapes from. And the transition from adult to senior is everyone’s destiny. But there comes a point in a senior’s life where the children can no longer look after them.
When this is the case, the natural solution to the problem is to put the seniors in a community to help them make decisions a bit easier.
Luckily for us, there are thousands of senior housing options to choose from. And in this article, we are going to give you our 5 tips on how to choose the best one. So if you’re struggling to find a suitable housing option for your parents, this is the article for you.
With all that said, let’s start.
1. Understand Your Options
First things first, the best place to start is to look at what senior housing options you have available to choose from. There are a few types so let’s examine them.
· CCRCs
CCRCs stands for Continuing Care Retirement Communities, and these can easily be explained as “small towns”. These towns serve both seniors that are in need of assistance and those that are looking for a more independent style of living. They’re usually equipped with all the facilities needed to promote senior care.
· Assisted Living Communities
These communities are very similar to the previous one, with the only exclusion being medical care. Namely, these communities are made mostly out of seniors, but it is the family’s job to look after the seniors.
· Green House Homes
When it comes to providing seniors with care and social community, Green House Homes are unique senior housing options that make it possible. These are very unique and highly attractive.
2. Determine What the Senior Needs
There are tons of factors that impact the decision. Some seniors might prefer communities that provide medical attention, meals, and entertainment, while others focus more on the entertainment aspect and are perfectly fine with administering medical attention by themselves or have a family member do it for them.
Regardless, each parent has to make a decision on what suits their needs the most.
But how would you know what each parent needs? To easily make the decision, they will need to think about a few things. The most important is time. Is your parent comfortable in a short-term or long-term setting? Another thing to look out for is the size of the housing itself. Naturally, seniors should also be interested in the location.
Housing options in the countryside might be better for seniors as opposed to the city. And lastly, although certainly not the least, seniors should consider what amenities the housing options have.
These are all factors that need to be taken into consideration in order to make a decision.
If you’re looking for a senior housing option that promotes independent, long-term living and has all the amenities needed to keep your parent entertained, then look no further than Sienna Living.
3. What Is Your Budget?
It’s safe to say that most senior housing options aren’t cheap. However, the price usually depends on the type of care your parent needs.
If your parent suffers from multiple conditions and disorders that would require greater medical care, then chances are it will cost more. Naturally, your best bet is to look at the prices for additional care.
Certain housing options charge more while others charge less. Making sure that a particular housing option falls within your budget will prevent a costly mistake in the future.
4. Look At Reviews and Ratings
As always, you should do the necessary research to make sure you’re sending your parent to a nice place that will look after them. The last thing you want is for a housing option to charge you each month all while your parent is left miserable and to look after themselves.
We’ve heard a fair few nursing home stories from hell. Stories where the seniors were not administered medical care, not looked after, etc.
And these are the sort of options you would want to avoid at all costs. But how would you know which option is good and which isn’t? Well, people tend to tell others whenever they’ve been provided bad service.
And considering that senior housing is a service to the elderly community, they will want to have their voice heard if something bad would to happens. One leads to another and soon Karen will tell everyone on Facebook about the bad service her mother has gone through at the nursing home. And not only that, she will leave a negative review on Google.
Google is truly the best place to read reviews and look up ratings on a particular housing option. If a particular senior nursing provider has a 2-star rating and plenty of negative reviews, you wouldn’t send your parent there, would you?
This is the easiest way to prevent making a bad decision, and one that costs nothing but a few hours of your time.
5. Talk With Residents
And yet another way to make sure you’re making the right decision is to go there and talk to the residents. These conversations can be very productive and give you an idea of what the staff is like.
Much like reading Google reviews, the residents will tell you all about their experience. And this isn’t some anonymous Karen on the internet; these are people with the first-hand experience.
Naturally, these conversations will be more legitimate than someone posting a review. And if the residents are generally happy and have nothing to complain about, then it might be a sign to book a seat.
Conclusion
It’s of utmost importance that we find the best senior housing option for our parents when the time comes. And while that might sound like a hard decision to make, there are plenty of ways to make sure you are indeed making the right decision. We hope that this article will help you make the right decision in the future, and help you choose a senior housing option that will make your parent happy.
