At some point, you may no longer feel that your parent can live safely by himself or herself. Perhaps your father has recently passed away and your mother doesn’t feel comfortable living on her own. Maybe your parent recently had a fall or just has general trouble getting around, especially if they no longer drive.
Whatever the reason, it’s time to make a choice about what living option is best for your parent.
Many adult children feel it is their duty to take their parents into their home. This is a wonderful sentiment, and in many cases this can be a great choice for the parent. This arrangement works best if the parent is still able to take care of themselves without too much support or supervision.
Many parents live with their adult children for years. This arrangement provides them with the companionship of loved ones, which many parents appreciate and is also a great financial help, especially to older women who may be collecting only a small amount of social security.
Unfortunately, in some cases, bringing a parent home can be a big challenge to adult children. If a parent suffers from dementia, balance issues or is unable to perform basic activities of daily living like bathing, dressing and toileting, they will require close supervision and daily care and cleaning. Adult children who work outside the home or have young children of their own may find that they simply are not able to give their parent the care and support that he or she needs.
In other cases, a parent may successfully live in the home of an adult child for years, until mental or physical decline becomes too much for the adult child to handle.
When this situation occurs, it is in the best interest of the adult children and parent to transfer the parent to an assisted living care facility that can provide the type of support that the parent needs. Throughout San Diego there are many nursing homes and board and care homes that provide advanced care for seniors in significant physical and mental decline. Many of these facilities are staffed by medical personnel who will provide your parent with high quality care.
It may be difficult for an adult child to admit that caring for an aging parent is just too hard or too stressful. Don’t feel bad. You are not letting your parent down, and transferring them to an assisted care facility doesn’t mean you love them any less. It means that you want them to get the full support and care they deserve. Give Care Placement a call at (619) 660-8814 to schedule a free and confidential consultation with one of our placement specialists.