I was lucky enough to host my parents every summer for 12 years. Now, I have my darling Mom with me full time.
Inviting senior citizens into your home requires a lot of thought and preparation. It is as important to make your house safe for the senior citizens as it is to make your home welcoming. Follow the tips in this eHow article to help ease the transition.
Instructions
1. If you're lucky enough to have disposable income, think about items in your home that can be updated for ease of use by the senior citizens. A refrigerator with the freezer on the bottom puts meals and snacks at eye level so there's no stooping over. Also, arrange the contents of the refrigerator so that the items most used by your seniors (such as Ensure meal supplements) are at their eye level and in front of other items. Clear counters of breakable items and stock up on paper plates and good quality plastic plates and drinking cups to help alleviate the worry of dropped glass. Paper plates are also wonderful for the microwave. If necessary, rearrange your cabinets so that place settings are located on a lower shelf, easily within reach of your senior citizens.
2. If your senior citizens are lucky enough to be fully mobile, they're ahead of the curve! However, you might need to consider putting in a stair lift or elevator to assist in helping the senior citizens reach other floors in the house. Consider putting in the new high rise toilets to alleviate pain in the knees - these are, in my opinion, much preferable to those removable riser toilet seats (these are nasty to clean...).
3. If you have throw rugs lying around, tack down all edges with either carpet tacks or the double sided tape made exactly for this purpose to keep your senior citizens upright! In my house, we had a toss up between the multitude of throw rugs needed for the comfort of my 3-legged dog and the sparsity of needed for my Mom (Mom won). A new recliner might ease the transition, but you might want to take your senior citizen with you to pick it out. My mom has shrunk so much that she needed a petite chair as all others were too deep for her.
4. Once my Mom moved in full time and I determined her needs, I then went out and shopped for items to assist her on a daily basis. I noticed that she wasn't drinking much water so I bought a small water bottle and asked her to finish it daily. I also bought one of the 7 day pill dispensers (the kind that you set up with breakfast/lunch/dinner pills) and I fill this weekly for her. I reorder her medications when they get low and, by using the 7 day pill dispenser, I have plenty of time to reorder and pick up reinforcements.
5. Train any animals present to respect foot space. I did this by swinging my legs widely when the animals approached or holding a cane and swinging it lightly, side to side. They learned quickly to steer clear of feet so I don't particularly worry about them tripping my Mom.
6. Give your senior citizens as much autonomy as possible. Allow them to do the things that they still can do, such as making the bed. Avoid smothering them (even though they are so cute!). As my Mom's mobility waned, I found other ways to let her feel as though she's still in control. I ask advice daily (yes, I have an exceptionally fantastic Mother) and, as her world has become smaller due to mobility issues, I've invited the world in. I rotate friends in for dinners and have made it clear that the door is always open. There's many times I've come home to find a friend sitting and chatting with Gert.
7. Treasure the times you have with your senior citizen. I'm so lucky in that I've gotten to relate to my Mother and Father on an adult level. After Dad died, Mom and I continued a wonderful relationship. Also, don't expect that, just because your love one is a senior citizen (or elderly) that they're 'old.' My Mom, at 92, is more viable than most people I know. She says that she feels about 45 inside, it's just her body that has aged. The elderly still have feelings, they still have a lot to offer and, in my humble opinion, they have more wisdom than I will ever hope to have.
Tags: senior citizens, your senior, your senior citizens, lucky enough, senior citizen, throw rugs