Determining long term care needs helps aging parents express their care wishes.
Being together over the holidays is a fantastic time to get caught up and an ideal time to have discussions about long term care planning with elderly parents. Having an open and honest discussion around determining long term care for aging parents, home modifications and finances is important to help meet the wishes of senior loved ones.
Grace Home Care, offering compassionate in-home care and dementia care in Topeka and the surrounding areas, has put together some important questions for you to cover during the discussion:
- Would you like to continue to live at home as you grow older, or consider a move elsewhere? Nearly all older adults want to remain at home throughout aging over a move to an assisted living facility or a nursing home, or moving in with adult children. If this is the situation with your parents, figure out any changes which need to occur in order for that desire to become a reality: home modifications and the overall layout of the house, along with a plan for support if a disability, chronic illness, or simply the challenges of aging make it difficult to remain safe and independent.
- What community services, amenities, and organizations would you like to continue to access? Naturally, your mother and father will need to be able to get food as well as other essential supplies and keep up with medical appointments and procedures, but discover what else may be important to them as they grow older, such as going to religious services, nail and/or hair salon appointments, sporting events, visits with friends and neighbors, etc. How will they carry on with these activities and tasks if they become unable to drive?
- How will the cost for any long term care needs be covered? Finances are frequently a sensitive topic to broach when discussing long term care for aging parents, but it’s essential to make sure a strategy is in place to meet future needs. If this hasn’t been done already, now is the ideal time for you to be sure that your parents have specified a power of attorney and met with a financial planner who is able to review investments, savings, insurance, estate planning, retirement funds, etc. and create a strategy to cover any potential expenses pertaining to aging care.
- Who is in your network of support? It’s a good idea to assemble a list of your parents’ close friends, neighbors, and other members of the family who will be open to providing assistance in the event of an emergency or simply as your parents’ abilities change through aging. Prioritize the list in the order your parents would like them to be contacted if a need arises, and then share the list with anybody who may have the need to get in touch with them (including those on the list themselves).
At Grace Home Care, we work with older adults and their families throughout Topeka and the surrounding areas as they make a plan for long term care needs. Because our home care services are highly personalized, we are able to begin providing assistance in just a couple of areas, for only several hours every week, such as help with housekeeping, meals, and running errands, and you can add in additional support over time if needed.
Contact our aging care experts at 785-286-2273 for the trusted support your senior parents need to remain safe, comfortable, and thriving at home for a lifetime. We are always available to answer any questions you have, and to schedule a complimentary in-home assessment to share more about our top-rated Topeka senior care and the surrounding communities.