Often, it comes to a time where one of your parents needs to move into senior living or assisted living because they live alone and can’t manage all of their needs themselves, or because they have different care needs than their spouse and require more comprehensive care. But what about when both of your parents require care or senior living?
If you or your parents are in this situation, then let’s look at some tips and considerations for a couple moving into senior living together.
Benefits of moving together
Whether or not their care needs are the same, continuing to live together through their senior years is likely to be good for the mental health of your parents. Loneliness and depression are, unfortunately, common problems among seniors, so keeping this companionship throughout changes in their lives will help to keep spirits high, and can make it easier to adapt to the change.
Adaptive care for couples
One of the main benefits of assisted living is that the care provided can adapt to each residents’ needs. This means that, even if your parents have slightly different needs or if their needs are developing at different rates as they age, both can be catered to. If one parent has a diagnosis such as dementia, then around-the-clock care and specialized memory care can be provided for them as their symptoms progress.
Shared or separate apartments/rooms
There are lots of accommodation options to consider when choosing senior living, from furnished and unfurnished apartments to rooms of varying sizes. A couple moving together are likely to share an apartment or room, but there may be situations where this isn’t the case.
If partners have very different needs, then they may be better off with separate apartments (perhaps neighboring apartments) or separate bedrooms within the same apartment. For example, if one person can still live pretty much independently but their partner requires around-the-clock professional care, or if they sleep with a disruptive CPAP machine, then that person’s quality of sleep may suffer from the disruptions, which can have negative impacts on their health.
By choosing to move together but live in separate accommodation, the couple can still be there for each other every day, but also have their own space and alone time to look after their own mental health.
If you’re looking for assisted living in North Carolina, then contact Brookstone of Clemmons to find out more about our facilities, accommodation, and community in Clemmons, NC.
