Thinking About Assisted Living for Your Parent?

Moving into assisted living is a life changing decision for an elderly person.  As their adult child, you can help evaluate which of your area’s senior retirement homes is most suitable for your parent and your family.  Furthermore, as the transition can be challenging for some seniors under the best of situations, choosing the wrong community may not only be costly but traumatizing for an older adult.  

Mistakes can be avoided or minimized if you do your homework beforehand and learn from others.  The Internet offers many commonsense tips on what to look for and what to avoid when searching for an assisted living community including advice from A Place for Mom, the nation’s largest assisted living referral service. 

As senior living options include independent living, assisted living and memory care, experts say to realistically assess your parent’s health needs and choose a community capable of handling today’s needs as well as future ones.  A Place for Mom’s Senior Living Advisor, Melissa Pratt explains “Take a look at the health issues that your parent has and ask the doctor what support they will need in the future. It’s better to have a community that can handle those future needs rather than having to move your parent to another community in the near future.”  

After looking over various senior living communities’ websites, narrow down your choice to a couple that seem to best meet your needs.  Then set up a tour. Senior living advisors remind families to listen to the parent and not base their decision on which community appeals most to them.  If a parent is not up to making a decision, families need to remember what their parent is like and choose a place that fits their personality and preferences.  It is also smart to not make a decision too quickly. 

MorningStar of Boulder offers 48 suites for assisted living and 46 secure suites for residents with Alzheimer’s disease and other memory impairments. Please visit our website for more information about our beautiful, loving community.  If you like what you see, we encourage you to set up a tour.

At MorningStar of Boulder, we represent the very best in senior retirement homes with a unique mission statement of “to honor, to serve, to invest.”  We have built a foundation on honoring God, valuing all seniors and selecting staff with a felt calling to serve to create a true “home” for residents.  Please schedule a visit to experience firsthand our beautiful assisted living and memory care community.