Have you found that your parent or loved one is having difficulty dressing themselves? Do they struggle to get into the shower every morning or evening? Is cooking a meal on their own too much of a task? If so, that means every day activities have become too burdensome for them. It’s a difficult decision, but you might want to start thinking about moving them into an assisted living facility. If you’d like to learn some of the warning signs, click here

You can enlist the help of a caregiver, but even caregivers have specific hours. You don’t want to worry about your loved one having trouble getting into bed or how they’re feeling late at night or early in the morning. A caregiver can’t tend to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On the other hand, if a loved one were to move into an assisted living facility, you’d be able to rest easier knowing they’re being cared for constantly. These facilities have nurses and personnel working round the clock.

Active Living for the Active Aging

There are active communities and assisted living communities. If your loved one has no trouble with their day-to-day errands but just doesn’t want the added concerns of maintaining a home, then an active community is for them. By moving into an active community, your parent or loved one will be surrounded by like-minded individuals who are looking to remain active as they age. Most of these communities include a list of activities for the month and promote social events amongst their residents. This helps keep everyone physically and mentally stimulated.

As mentioned previously, assisted living facilities have nurses working 24/7 to assure everyone is safe and prepared to handle an emergency if a medical event were to happen. Active living communities don’t necessarily have nurses on-call, but there is usually someone working the front desk who is prepared to call 911 in case of a medical emergency.

Active living communities certainly stress the importance of allowing their residents an independent living situation, however they don’t want to place them in helpless situations by refusing to accept the actuality of a potential medical emergency. That is something your parent or loved one should not have to worry about.

Assistance For Those Who Need It

For those who struggle with clothing themselves, cooking meals, or maintaining their house assisted living is their best option. The idea of assisted living is not to remove one’s independence but aid it. A lot of these communities still promote healthy, independent lifestyles by creating activity lists from month to month, much like the active communities. However, the activities are toned back just a bit. Instead of long trips and big social events, the residents can enjoy crossword puzzles and other word games. They’re great at stimulating the mind and keeping one’s brain limber. A lot of people don’t realize that the brain is a muscle, too. It’s needs to be stretched and utilized in order for it to maintain its elasticity. Without the brain, one’s independence surely can’t be kept.

Dining Services

Unlike the active living communities, assisted living facilities have their own dining services. This allows your aging loved one to have nutritious meals thoughtfully planned out and brought right to them three times a day. This promotes a healthy diet.

If an elderly loved one is having an increasingly difficult time cooking on their own, they’re more likely to order out and consume foods that are not as nutritious or receive an insufficient amount of foods that are. That’s why dining services are very important within an assisted living facility.

A lot of the time, residents within these types of communities have a hard time remaining active. Some of them are confined to a wheelchair, so their diet is very crucial for their overall health, but if a person is receiving the proper amount of vitamins and nutrients in their daily meals, their ability to age in a healthy manner remains in tact.

Different Communities for Different Individuals

As you can see, these two differing communities are for two different lifestyles. However, they both have the same goal: Healthy aging. Active living communities and assisted living facilities all look to aid their residents to be a little more social, a little more stronger, and much more vigorous!

We encourage you to visit our communities by clicking the link here. It’ll take you to our “request a tour” page where you can experience Personal Care at The Park or a number of our Active Living communities. Don’t hesitate! Sign up today to start exploring with your parent or aging loved one!