How to Best Prepare a Patient or Loved One for Their Move to Senior Housing

Updated on January 11, 2022

Whether you are a professional and medically trained professional who is responsible for a duty of care to aging adults and assisting them in making a decision to move to senior housing, or else the primary caregiver, or even a concerned close friend or relative of an elderly person, there are certainly a host of considerations to take on board.

Senior housing is one of the most important things to consider when an older person is no longer willing and/or able to look after themselves and their own home. 

With that being said, continue reading to learn how to best prepare a patient or loved one for their move to senior living.

What Actually Is Senior Housing?

Senior housing is, in broad terms, an establishment or facility that is entirely designed and made to serve aging and elderly adults who would prefer to live in a community yet entirely independently.

Senior housing is notably different from assisted living facilities, although both are catered towards allowing older adults to live an independent life in a safe and secure environment. 

The Different Types of Senior Housing

Essentially, there are four diverse and different types of senior living facilities. 

Memory care, also often referred to as Alzheimer’s care is essentially an additional unit that is more than often built onto an existing independent or assisted living facility.

Staff working in a memory care facility are fully trained and equipped to deal with the difficulties, stresses, and worries of a person suffering from a debilitating memory-based illness and can assist with everything from cleaning and washing to dressing and feeding. 

The other types of senior housing include nursing homes, care homes, assisted living facilities, and independent living facilities.

How to Prepare an Older Person for the Move to Senior Living

One of the most important things to do, right from the decision having been made that your elderly loved one is going to be moving to a prestigious and established facility, such as senior housing Myrtle Beach SC, is to focus entirely on the positives.

The transition will be made considerably easier if they are both prepared and positive about their future, and it is down to you and the primary caregiver to ensure positivity is at the forefront of both of your minds.

Other ways to prepare your patient or loved one for the move to senior living include packing a ‘first night’ and ‘first morning’ box full of recognizable and sentimental items, purchasing a journal to record your thoughts and feelings, and never being afraid to ask for help. 

Patience 

Patience, as the old proverb accurately states, is truly a virtue and is perhaps the one overarching characteristic you must at least show, even if you don’t always necessarily feel, to the older person at all times. Additionally, never let any possible frustrations show, and always be prepared to repeat and re-repeat any information as and when you are asked to. 

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