One of the most important things you may need to do for your parents as they get older is to make sure that they are well taken care of. With employment and family expectations yourself, it is likely that you will not be personally able to provide round-the-clock care they may need. When this happens, you may want to consider a nursing home.
Choose the Best Nursing Home for Your Loved Ones
Finding a nursing home can be intimidating. Not only do you want to ensure that your parent is completely taken care of in this environment, but also that it will be a place they call home for the rest of their lives. Further, a parent may not want to live in a nursing home, making the search even more challenging. But when the loved one can no longer live at home or needs to be removed from a hospital, can be the best option.
Some things to keep in mind when searching for a nursing home are:
- Make sure that the nursing home is close to where family and friends can swing by for a visit. Seeing those that your parent cares about regularly is important to their well-being.
- Tour the nursing home and examine how rooms are maintained, what the food is like, and what the interactions between residents and staff are. A shiny lobby or forced interaction can be misleading, and your parent needs to feel at ease where they will be living.
- Talk to nursing home staff to ask about how they determine individual care plans and how they respond to family concerns. If you are not comfortable with the response, then look somewhere else.
- Check certifying agency reports, such as those found at Medicare’s Nursing Home Compare in order to see how the home is rated by others. This can uncover hidden problems that you may not have noticed in your visit.
- Get references from the facility and speak to the families of current residents. You can ask these people information that you may not be able to ask the facility themselves.
Choosing a nursing home should not be rushed. This may be the last home your parent will have, and rushing the job can cause a parent to feel uncomfortable in this space. Be sure to take your time and make this the best possible move for those you love.
