Assisted living is one of the best elder care options for aging seniors who need some level of assistance and support. You or a loved one might only need minimal assistance. They may need a bit more. Perhaps they don’t need any help, but cleaning, cooking for themselves, and doing all the other general upkeep and maintenance of daily life is wearing on them and they want a break from it all.
Whatever the reason for looking into assisted living, it is a great elder care option to consider. However, with many other types of elder care, the baby boomer generation is retiring and that means there are more elderly men and women in the United States than ever before. The percentage of elderly in the US is projected to reach 20 percent of the entire population of the country by around 2030 or 2035.
That means there’s going to be an increase in demand for elder care services, including assisted living. What that also means is it might become more difficult to find availability at certain assisted living communities, especially those that are considered higher quality.
How long should you wait?
If it’s for you or somebody you care about, perhaps your aging parent or grandparent, and they need support right now, can you really afford to wait six months or longer without any guarantee of an opening at a specific facility?
There may be other options in the area. But what if you really like this community? What if the senior already has friends who are there? What if you were told it might be six months or longer before an available room opens up?
Do you wait? Do you do the best you can for as long as you can? What if something happens in the meantime because there wasn’t the right level of support to help that senior while they waited?
Ask about respite care options.
An assisted living community that doesn’t have permanent, long-term rooms available might have other options. They might have roommate shares available, meaning the senior can move in with another elderly person, thus sharing some of the costs of that room.
It might not be ideal for somebody who has lived independently for most of their adult life, but it’s something.
There may also be respite care options. These are short-term stays, not long-term. They could be for several days a week, a few weeks at a time, or even overnight.
You may be the one supporting this aging senior, helping them out before and after work. Maybe you go home and worry about them all alone in that house or apartment with no support. That assisted living community might have some rooms available for overnight stays.
You could drop seniors off in the evening, they can spend the night there, participate in activities, watch some movies, talk with friends, play games, or whatever they want to do, sleep, and then you could pick them up in the morning to bring them home.
These are just a few options that can help you bridge the gap between what the senior really wants and the availability that exists at the moment, all while keeping them safe.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Assisted Living in Granite City, IL, or surrounding areas, please contact the caring staff at Knollwood Retirement Community today at (618) 226-5755
Offering seniors age 65 and older a wealth of amenities to retain as much independence as they are able, with support, in a home-like environment in our supportive living community.
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