Start small, start with an idea or suggesting that maybe its time to downsizing. Explain the safety issues with their current living situations. Plan, do not ambush your loved one, don’t think by a minute that you are taking the charge and pack things and moving your loved one from their home to a smaller place there won’t be challenges, or fights and even anxiety. You are wrong, even a person diagnoses with Alzheimer’s/Dementia you will have a problem.
Take the lead, not take the charge, do not go ahead and start making decisions, lead the way. The best way is to start to point out how the winter is brutal that winter times require to winterize the whole house and that how difficult it became to go up and down the basement stair to do the laundry, remember your loved ones they are included in the process.
Make appointments to visit some senior apartments, encourage the fact that some of the senior complex offer home health care services.
For the most take away here is explain that you are assisting your family member rightsizing for the future. For many senior, making the decision to move to a retirement community isn’t about downsizing to a smaller place- it’s about finding the right place, social activities, plan a different kind of future, to a space that better fits their new life and goals.
