According to the AARP, about 10,000 members of the Baby Boomer generation turn 65 every day. If you are an adult child of Boomer parents, you may notice them beginning to have difficulty with everyday activities and household chores. Decreasing agility and balance, trouble remembering appointments and forgetting to take important medications may all be signs that it is time to consider moving to a nursing home.

Reduce the Stress of Moving to a Nursing Home

It can be difficult, however, to deal with the emotional aspect of transitioning your mother or father to a skilled care facility. While you may see the logic in providing a safe and supportive environment, your parent may be resentful or afraid of leaving their home. Many Boomers are reluctant to give up the sense of freedom and self-determination that this generation values so highly.

Thankfully, there are several things you can do to help to ease their stress about the move. A good place to start is asking them to join you on a guided tour of a skilled nursing facility. This may help your parent feel more involved in the decision and make them more receptive to the change.

Most importantly, don’t simply dismiss their fears or apprehensions about moving to a nursing home. Reassure your mother or father that you are not going to forget about them after they move. Be sure to take the time to get answers to your parent’s questions and inquire about counseling and support groups at the facility.

What to Expect After Moving to a Nursing Home

The first few weeks after moving to a nursing home can be a confusing time for your loved one. While they get used to a new place, new people and new routines, don’t be surprised if your elderly mother or father makes a few negative comments. Often, the best way to handle this situation is to simply listen to their concerns with empathy and understanding.

You can also help to ease the fear of being in a new place by exploring the facility with your parent. Check the social schedule for an activity you can enjoy together, sit down to eat a meal or get a cup of coffee. Enjoying these everyday activities together can go a long way towards helping them feel more relaxed in the new environment.

Help Your Elderly Parent Feel More at Home

Making their new residence as comfortable and personal as possible can help your parent maintain a positive outlook. Start by ensuring they have some of their favorite things from home, such as a favorite blanket or treasured knickknacks. Stocking their room with snacks or drinks they enjoy is a good idea, too.

Bringing a gift of photos of the people they love or artwork from grandchildren is a sure way to brighten your parent’s day. Enliven their room during your visits by decorating for holidays, bringing fresh flowers or adding a container of potpourri.

Additionally, bringing new books or current magazines can help to keep your parent engaged and entertained. Ensuring they have a telephone in their room to make or receive calls can help them feel connected to friends and family, too.

Visit Senatobia Healthcare & Rehab

Our skilled and experienced healthcare staff works hard to provide compassionate care to all of our residents. Call us today to schedule a tour of our facility in Senatobia, Mississippi, and see how our award-winning team can give you and your family the peace of mind you deserve.

When looking for a nursing home for your loved one, it’s hard to know which one is best for your exact situation. Having the right information can help make this challenging and emotional decision easier for everyone involved.

According to the National Institutes of Health, more than half of the elderly population in the United States will spend at least one night in a long-term care facility. When looking at the available options, obtaining answers to these four questions can help ensure the facility is safe, compassionate and offers high-quality care.

When Looking for a Nursing Home Get Answers to These Four Questions

Looking for a nursing home for your elderly parents is a big decision. To make choosing the right one easier, try your best to get honest answers to the following four questions.

How Happy are the Members of the Staff?

Quantitative answers, like staffing ratios and turnover rates, are a good place to start to assess the satisfaction levels of the staff at a facility. For these details, you can check out a skilled nursing facility’s staffing rating at Medicare.org.

For more insight, try asking individual employees if they like their job, how they would rate their own stress levels and how they would rate the staff overall. The answers you get should give you a good idea of what it’s like at the facility and the quality of care it provides.

How Does Senatobia Stack Up? Senatobia Healthcare & Rehab is happy to say we can tackle the tenure question head on. Our employees truly enjoy working at our facility, and the numbers back this up: 67 percent of our staff has worked here over three years, 50 percent over five years, and 33 percent over 10 years. This longevity becomes critically important to our residents who count on receiving consistent treatment from their caregivers.

How Well Does the Facility Meet Patient Needs?

Ascertaining how well caregivers treat patients is important but may be difficult. Knowing your elderly parent will receive their medication, therapy and food in a timely manner is, of course, of the utmost importance when looking for a nursing home. In addition to these daily routines, the facility should be able to offer therapy for anything from a stroke to hip fracture — or partner with an organization that can.

One indicator to determine if there is a good level of care at a facility is current certification from Medicare and Medicaid. All skilled nursing facilities must meet minimum health and safety standards to participate in these federal programs. Look for lower-than-average reported deficiencies and no reports of mistreatment, actual harm or immediate jeopardy.

Once again, your own observations when touring the facility can give you some insight into this answer. Observe how the current staff handles the residents. Do you see the staff sit and talk with patients? Do they answer requests quickly and with a smile? When a call bell is activated, how long does it take before it’s answered?

How Does Senatobia Stack Up? Our 120-bed, post-acute care facility features a highly-trained and licensed staff who consistently go the extra mile for our residents. We are certified by Medicare and Medicaid and have a wide range of state-of-the-art physical and occupational therapy equipment and treatment options.

What is the Atmosphere of the Facility?

To support their resident’s mental and emotional health, a facility should have a comfortable and home-like atmosphere. During your tour, look for evidence of touches that make the facility feel like home. This may be as simple as allowing patients to decorate their rooms or keeping favorite items close at hand.

Whether your loved one needs a short-term stay to recover from an injury or will become a long-term resident, a happy and comfortable environment is crucial. Smiling faces, happy voices and the comforts of home can all add up to a more enjoyable stay and improve medical outcomes.

How Does Senatobia Stack Up? At Senatobia, we work hard to maintain a warm, home-like environment for our long-term residents. We strive to ensure that “our residents don’t live in a facility, we work in their home.”

How Full is the Activity Calendar?

Keeping busy with an assortment of activities is important to patient satisfaction at a skilled nursing facility. A quality nursing home will have a wide range of daily activities planned for residents of varying interests and abilities.

Staying active has a well-documented effect on health and recovery levels. Activities that engage residents with physical, mental, and psychosocial aspects tend to produce the best results. This is especially important for those suffering from the effects of Alzheimer’s or dementia.

How Does Senatobia Stack Up? We maintain a full calendar of activities with music and art programs, rehabilitative physical activities and innovative technologies to engage our long-term patients.

Choose Senatobia Healthcare & Rehab

We realize the decision to place a parent or loved one in a skilled nursing facility is extremely important. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you and your family and invite you to visit us here at Senatobia Healthcare & Rehab when you are looking for a nursing home. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you have and show you how we create a caring and comfortable home for our residents. Give us a call today!

As the Baby Boomer generation ages, many of them will spend at least some time in a long-term care facility. If you are an adult child of a nursing home resident, you may struggle to find the right time and how often your nursing home visits should be.

Adult children of elderly parents are often placed in the difficult situation of providing support for both the younger and older generations in their family. Deciding on a realistic visitation schedule to the nursing home and planning activities to enjoy together can help ease the stress for both you and your parent.

Nursing Home Visits to See Your Elderly Parent

As our parents age, it’s natural for their health to begin to deteriorate. You may notice their muscle strength or sense of balance decreasing, as well as memory issues, confusion or other signs of cognitive decline.

These deficits, especially when combined, can lead to an increased risk of injury to elderly parents who live alone. For many adult children, ensuring the safety of their parent requires the 24-hour supervision provided by a nursing home or skilled nursing facility.

If you find yourself in this situation, you may struggle with deciding how often to visit your elderly parent, as well as what to do during these visits. While there is no one right answer for everybody, the following tips can help you choose an appropriate schedule and make the most of your visitation time.

How Often Should You Visit?

Deciding how often to visit a parent in a long-term care facility is often complicated by a myriad of factors. While you may think going as often as possible is best, consider making fewer visits that are of higher quality.

For example, going every day for a few short minutes may not provide as much emotional support as devoting one or two hours a few days each week. Be sure to work out a schedule with the skilled nursing facility staff to avoid disrupting appointments with doctors, social activities or rehabilitation sessions.

Suggestions from Senatobia: Adult children often feel like they have to take on the entire responsibility of making nursing home visits. To avoid feeling overwhelmed, try enlisting the help of family members and friends of your elderly parents. Sharing the responsibility helps to ease your burden, and visits from a variety of friendly faces is a great way to keep your parent’s spirits up.

What Time Should You Visit?

While checking with the staff is always recommended, in general mid-mornings or mid-afternoons typically have fewer scheduled activities for nursing home residents. That does not mean, however, that you need to go at the same time every visit. Senior care experts recommend visiting on different days and at different times.

Varying your visits allows you to become a more effective patient advocate for your elderly parent, too. Skilled nursing staff, rehabilitation specialists and physicians may see your parent at different times throughout the week. Talking with several of them will give you a better sense of the quality and appropriateness of the care your parent receives.

How Long Should You Visit? 

Like the other choices we’ve discussed, deciding how long you should spend visiting your elderly parent will depend on your exact situation. Again, simply staying as long as possible is not as important as spending quality time together.

If you live close to the nursing home and can visit regularly, spending an hour together every few days may be right for you. If your nursing home visits require traveling a long distance, spending two or three hours together once a week may be a better option.

What Should You Do During a Visit?

Before you arrive, take a moment to consider the activities your parent may enjoy. For example, check with the nursing home staff to make arrangements to eat lunch or dinner together. Joining your elderly parent during one of the skilled nursing facility’s social activities is another great way to spend quality time.

Bringing a gift like a photo album may spur your parent to reminisce and engage in a heart-felt discussion. If your parent is able to walk or get into a wheel chair, consider having them give you a tour of the facility or grounds. For parents with mobility issues, try playing cards or board games, reading to them or watching a favorite movie or TV show together.

No matter how you spend your time during a nursing home visit, remember that your visit makes a big difference to their emotional and physical health.

Why Senatobia Healthcare & Rehab?

At Senatobia Healthcare & Rehab, we treat your loved ones the way you would want to be treated. Our knowledgeable and experienced healthcare team members have a commitment to providing compassionate care. Owned and operated by the same family since 1978, our award-winning skilled nursing facility provides both short- and long-term healthcare and rehabilitation services. We do this in a homelike environment and family-type atmosphere. Consider us when your mother or father need special care in the Senatobia, Mississippi, area.

While flowers and plants are thoughtful gifts for elderly parents staying in a skilled nursing facility, eventually your mom’s or dad’s room may begin to look like a greenhouse. If you’d like to give a more meaningful or practical gifts for elderly parents, try one of the following suggestions.

Gifts for Elderly Parents in a Skilled Nursing Facility

We know how hard it can be to see your parents lose functionality due to an age-related injury, illness or chronic medical condition. In many cases, recovering from these conditions requires spending time in a skilled nursing facility.

While our entire staff at Senatobia is dedicated to providing outstanding medical care to our residents, knowing that friends and family are thinking of them can help make the patient’s recovery process easier. To show your loved ones they are in your thoughts, consider giving them one of these gifts during their stay.

Family Photos

Picking up a few picture frames to fill with photos of their spouse, children, grandchildren and other loved ones is always a thoughtful gift. For sharing larger numbers of photos, try creating a scrapbook of your favorite shots. There are also several websites that allow you to upload photographs and create custom-printed photo books. Electronic photo frames that allow you to add favorite family photos digitally are another great option. The frame will cycle through the photos automatically, showing off the familiar faces of loved ones throughout the day.

Wireless Headphones

Wireless headphones allow our residents to listen to music, audio books or the TV at a comfortable volume — even during quiet hours. Whether your parent suffers from hearing loss or shares a room, they can turn up the sound and enjoy their favorite shows without disturbing those around them.

Bathrobes, Slippers or Blanket

As we age our circulation becomes less efficient, which can leave your elderly mom or dad feeling cold. Bringing them a favorite bathrobe, comfortable slippers with non-skid soles or a nice soft blanket can help keep them warm and cozy. Be sure to label these items with your parent’s name to keep them from getting lost!

Personal Toiletry Items

When staying at a rehabilitation center, having the simple comforts of home can make a real difference for an elderly parent. A gift basket filled with trial sized items of their favorite brands of tissues, lip balm, lotion, toothpaste or mouthwash is a great way to help them feel at home.

Your Time

Of course, the best gift you can give your mom or dad is a nice, long visit. Spending time with their children, no matter what their age, is especially important to parents while they are away from their own home.

Taking the time to talk, eat a meal or play a game together helps to alleviate the loneliness of staying somewhere besides your own home. In general, the more frequently you can stop in, the better.

More Ideas for Gifts for Elderly Parents

Check out a few of these shopping websites to order gift such as puzzles, word games, light weights, stretch bands, books, music and more:

• Silverts has provided comfortable clothing and shoes for more than 80 years.
• Products at the Senior Store run the gamut from games to large print books.
• Parent Giving offers a wide selection of safety and assistive devices as well as home care, health care and nutrition products.
• Buck & Buck has clothing for seniors, plus products designed to help with problems related to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, incontinence, arthritis, and paralysis. Be sure to ask about their free labeling service for clothing!

Senatobia Healthcare & Rehab Offers Compassionate Care to Your Loved Ones!

Our award-winning skilled nursing facility offers both excellent short-term and long-term healthcare in the Senatobia, Mississippi area. Our facility has been owned and operated by the same family since 1978. When your loved one needs physical, speech or occupational therapy, call our compassionate and professional team for help.