Senior Care: Does somebody you care about need help? Somebody of advancing years? A senior?
It might be your mother or your father or grandparent or your spouse or a sibling. It might even be a close friend. It doesn’t matter who it is, but the senior who needs any type of senior care might require this support for just a few weeks or longer.
How can you possibly know how long this will take?
Well, there are a few clues that may indicate if this is going to be a temporary, short-term care situation for the senior or something longer.
If the senior has been hospitalized recently due to a medical emergency and the doctor expects he or she will make a full recovery, then senior care will likely be temporary or short-term. That might last for a few weeks or a couple of months.
In some situations, the need for care for seniors may last many, many months, and yet still be considered temporary. That’s because, even if a senior needs care for six months, it’s not in the realm of long-term care, which could be a year or more.
For some seniors, if they have been experiencing declining health, and it doesn’t seem that it is going to improve, it is more likely they will need long-term senior care.
Of course, some people who may appear to need long-term senior care options eventually don’t need that level of help any more, and others whose families thought it would be short-term suddenly need ongoing regular care.
Where should you start?
The first thing is to understand the different types of senior care available for aging men and women. Most commonly these will include home care, nursing home care, and assisted living.
If the senior wants to remain home and it is possible to do so with the right support, that would fall under the realm of home care. This is considered the most affordable senior care option out there and the one more elderly men and women prefer.
As the baby boomer generation retires and more seniors require care, they want to age in place.
They want to remain home, where they are most comfortable. But, if an elderly person needs extensive medical care and attention, especially around the clock, then a nursing home may be the best senior care option at this time. They may stay there for a few weeks or a couple of months and be able to transition home, in time.
You also want to include the senior in the process.
When it comes to finding the right care, the senior will have their own opinions and insights. You, as their adult daughter or son, spouse, sibling, or other loved one may have their opinions, but you need to respect the wishes of this aging senior, too.
Unless they are not able to make reasoned and cogent decisions about their future care, the senior should have every right to decide what he or she does or receives as far as short or long-term care.
