How do you know what your aging loved one really needs? Often times, older adults have difficulty communicating to their children what their needs are. Discover what stage your loved one is experiencing and learn how you can best meet their needs.
Stage 1: Self-sufficiency |Age 55 – at this stage it’s time to:
- Asses where one lives and ask if it will support your needs later.
- Managing chronic illness on their own and learning to take better care of self to improve a healthy future.
- Learn the costs of long-term care and the ways to cover them.
- Create legal instructions that keep you in charge of decision about care and finances.
- Learn about the family’s medical history.
Stage 2: Interdependence | Your loved one turns to family, spouse, or friend for help. Individual sees growing older as decline. During this stage the older adult is experiencing:
- Loss of independence
- Concern about safety
- Worry about physical hindrances and some mental decline.
- Loss of easy access such as driving at night.
Stage 3: Dependency – supportive living | Your loved one relies on others for help with activities of daily living. During this stage the older adult is experiencing:
- A need for assistance with transportation, meal planning, bathing, grooming and dressing.
- A need for assistance to find personal care help, therapists.
- Loss of social interaction.
Stage 4: Crisis management/Complex care | Your loved one needs more help than what the family can give. During this stage the older adult is:
- Coping with greater loss of physical and mental functioning, chronic pain.
- Managing multiple health conditions requiring treatments and therapies.
- Dealing with cognitive problems (thinking, memory, impulse control, judgment).
Stage 5: Finale | Your loved one must have 24/7 care. During this stage the older adult is experiencing:
- Multiple trips to the emergency room and the illness continues to progress significantly, affecting the quality of life.
- The same or worsening symptoms.
- A desire to remain at home, rather than spend time in the hospital, or must live in a nursing home.
- A desire to stop receiving treatments for their disease.
It’s always best to plan ahead. Contact our caring sales counselors here to get more information about Tealridge Assisted Living and Memory Care and how we can help your loved one receive the care they need.
