Thanskgiving Visit to Elders May Be Push to Move

Thanksgiving is coming and aging family members will visit their elderly parents. What they may find is a shocking reason to move them

Declining physical safety due to the lack of home maintenance often creates an urgency to move. Home safety concerns and deferred home maintenance often share a symbiotic relationship. Loose stair railings, leaky roofs, old furnaces, and seeping gas appliances all result from deferred home maintenance and create an unsafe living environment

If the older adult lacks the ability to access qualified home maintenance and repair services, the push to move will surface once again and a change in living environment may be considered.

Dementia, decrements in vision and hearing, a lack of a strong support network, or financial limitations can make the ability to identify and contract with reputable home repair services nearly impossible.  When the home environment is deemed no longer able to support the safety of the older adult this is a red flag to move hire a geriatric care manager http://memberfinder.caremanager.org/. They can assess how the older person can stay at home with home repairs and private duty home care.

This calls into question the availability of sufficient financial resources to pay for much-needed assistance in the face of declining health or support networks. Aside from structural changes to the home, an older person’s lack of ambulation or ability to execute ADL’s or IADL’s may require paid caregivers. If the older person has insufficient financial resources to afford care or modify the house, this financial crisis may push an older person to consider moving. The geriatric care manager can help the family or elder to find the right level of care to move and assist them in moving.

Social support, health and functional abilities, home environment, safety, and finances are all factors affecting the degree of push an older adult or an elder’s family may experience leading to the need for late-life relocation. Social supports, like adult children visiting at Thanksgiving may prompt need to the need do much more than cook a turkey at Mom’s house. Adult children may have to decide whether to move her or him.