It’s understandable for seniors and their families to be apprehensive about exploring residential elder care. But while such a major transition can undoubtedly be daunting, the advantages of moving to senior care are aplenty.
What Does Residential Assisted Living Include?
In residential assisted living, seniors live in a community where they can receive 24/7 non-nursing care and support with activities of daily living. Residents often have a private or shared room with access to daily meals, a range of on-site amenities and communal living areas. If you’re still unsure about whether residential assisted living is right for your loved one, here are just a few great benefits of this type of elder care.
Live a Healthy Lifestyle With Ease
As a senior ages, maintaining a healthy lifestyle often becomes much harder. For example, for seniors with reduced mobility or memory issues, tasks like grocery shopping and meal preparation can become difficult. In a typical residential assisted living setting, seniors are served freshly prepared and nutritious meals each day, eliminating the need for food shopping, meal preparation and cooking. These meals are often served in a communal setting, meaning mealtimes can also become a valuable social part of the day for residents.
Alongside the delicious meals served each day, seniors in residential assisted living can receive help with essential activities of daily living from professional caregivers. Tasks like getting in and out of bed, using the toilet, brushing teeth, bathing, and getting dressed and ready for the day can become a little more challenging as mobility declines. Senior care staff are well trained and experienced in providing dignified personal care that empowers seniors to feel healthy, hygienic and confident to tackle each day.
Enjoy Improved Safety
Many seniors who reside in their own homes begin to struggle with moving around. Things like staircases, inaccessible baths and uneven surfaces can pose risks that threaten the safety of seniors and cause additional worry for family caregivers. What’s more, reduced mobility may also make home maintenance more difficult. This can lead to issues like increased clutter that further amplify tripping hazards and poor safety.
Residential assisted living communities are built to meet the mobility needs of seniors, allowing for improved safety and a reduced risk of falls and avoidable accidents. Facilities are adapted for ease of use, with fixtures like grab bars, curbless showers, and stair lifts or ground floor accommodation. Most senior care facilities also have highly trained staff on-site around the clock to ensure residents are well cared for 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.
Maintain a Fulfilling Social Life
Many aging adults deal with loneliness, and if a senior has suffered the loss of a spouse, siblings or close friends, social isolation may be felt even more deeply. Other issues like declining mobility may also prevent seniors from meeting friends and attending social occasions like they used to. In residential assisted living, seniors have unlimited opportunities to socialize. From communal mealtimes to social, spiritual and recreational events, activities and groups, residents are able to stay connected and build strong new friendships from the outset. In residential assisted living, seniors are free to socialize as and when they please, while also having a private space to retreat to. Elder care facilities boast a strong sense of community, and can offer seniors the valuable social support they deserve.
Stay Independent
It’s a common misconception that moving to residential assisted living is synonymous with loss of independence. In fact, quite the opposite is usually true. Many seniors who move to a senior care setting do so when they become unable to live independently at home. These seniors often feel isolated, and may be unable to leave their house or complete activities of daily living without the help of a loved one.
With the adapted facilities residential assisted living offers, seniors might in fact be much more well-equipped to remain independent. For example, while a senior might have been unable to bathe without help in their bathtub, they may well manage just fine with the spacious shower available in their new home.
Improved Quality of Life
The above benefits of residential assisted living make for an overall improved quality of life for seniors. With an effortlessly healthy lifestyle, excellent safety provisions, a rich social life and increased independence, seniors in residential elder care are able to live out the happy and healthy retirement they deserve.
Support for Family Caregivers
As well as the array of positive changes residential assisted living can offer for seniors themselves, family caregivers can also benefit from a loved one’s move to senior care. Coping with the demands of caregiving can be immensely challenging for families, especially if the caregiver has their own children, a partner and/or a career to balance, too.
All too often, family caregivers become burned out and stressed, feeling guilty for spreading themselves too thin. With the help of residential assisted living, family caregivers are able to spend real quality time with their senior relative, without sacrificing other important responsibilities and relationships.
Starting your search for senior care early will allow you to take the time needed to choose the right option for yourself or your loved one. If you’re interested in exploring what residential assisted living in Hendersonville can offer, we’re always happy to answer any questions – big or small. To find out more about the quality care and first-class amenities New Hope Senior Living offers, arrange a personalized tour today.