Deciding if your parent should be put in a retirement home can be a heartbreaking decision. Of course, you want to keep them in their home or in your home as long as possible but there comes a point where a retirement home is the best option for everyone. If you’re not sure if you’re at that point yet then consider the following issues. Clearly, there will be some overlap with these issues but they can all weigh in on this decision.
Issues Of Cleanliness
Are their issues of cleanliness in the current living situation? Can the parent maintain a clean home? Are there incontinence issues? Basically, are the living conditions sanitary?
Issues Of Safety
Is your parent safe in their current living arrangements? Can they live alone? If they live with you, can they be alone during the day without falling, starting a fire, wandering off, or doing anything else that could pose a risk to their safety or someone else’s safety? You know when safety is even a question then it is time for a greater level of care.
Loneliness And Isolation
Is your parent receiving an adequate level of socialization? Are they lonely? While there may be a number of solutions to this particular concern, if this is one more concern on the list then a nursing home could help to solve this dilemma too.
Mental Issues
This was alluded to earlier when safety was discussed but if your parent’s mental health in any way prevents them from caring for themselves or from being cared for by you then a nursing home is probably in order. If your parent is no longer cognizant of who is caring for them then that, too, could indicate the time for a nursing home.
Physical Limitations
Physical limitations could overlap with safety issues and with isolation but they could go beyond these arenas as well. If you parent has any physical limitations that in any way interfere with their quality of life then you will want to find a way to deal with these physical limitations. There are certain physical limitations that may come as a result of aging or other factors that do not drastically interfere with your parent’s quality of life. You may want to discuss these with your parent along with other care options. The quality of life issue is always the deciding vote.
General Inability To Care For Themselves (Or Your Inability To Care For Them)
Whenever your parent cannot adequately care for themselves or if they live with you and you are no longer able to provide them with the level of care that you want them to have then it is time to consider a nursing home. You just want your parent to live wherever they will be best cared for.
Deciding if your parent should be put in a nursing home is likely to be accompanied by many sleepless nights. At least unless you realize that you are acting purely in your parent’s best interest. Realize that is all that this issue is about.
T R Heinecker blogs on many topics, including how to determine where to get a masters degree in gerontology.
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