Aging in place is a big goal. For some older adults, it might be a relatively easy goal to achieve. For others, the situation may be more complicated. If you and your elderly family member don’t agree about her desire to age in place, the conversation may feel impossible.
Family and Friends Live Nearby
If your elderly family member still lives close to friends and family, she may be very reluctant to make any changes that mean she won’t be as physically close to people she cares about. That physical closeness may be what she believes ensures that she sees those people as often as she does. Even moving to another neighborhood might feel to your senior as though she is disrupting something important.
She Feels Safest at Home
Familiar surroundings also tend to feel safe, whether they truly are or not. This can be especially true if your elderly family member has lived in her home for a very long time. In her mind, the amount of time that she has spent in that location equals security. It may be possible for you and other family members to make improvements to the home in order to make her actually as safe there as she feels she already is.
She Knows and Loves Her Home
Something else to consider is that your elderly family member knows her home. It is her home, both in point of fact and in her heart. That matters quite a lot. This is another scenario that might be made stronger if your senior has lived in that particular home for a long period of time. Living somewhere else may not be appealing to her at all.
She Correlates Independence with Her Home
For so many aging adults, independence is something that she associates with where she lives. And if she’s able to stay where she has lived for years, in her mind that means that she’s still able to do everything that she’s always done there. Even if that is inaccurate, that’s not the part that really matters to her in that moment.
You and your elderly family member may need to compromise on this. Instead of moving, as long as her home is structurally safe, she may accept more help. Senior care providers are an excellent choice for this kind of assistance because they understand where and how she’s most likely to need help.
If you or an aging loved one is considering senior care in Franktown, CO, please contact the caring staff at SYNERGY HomeCare today at 303-953-9924.
