2 Living Options For Your Aging Parents

Your parents have spent their lives taking care of you and any siblings. But when the time comes that your parents need a little bit of help, you are all going to need to sit down and talk about what options you have available. You want to make sure that your parents are happy and healthy wherever they end up. There are several options open to your family, and each has its own pros and cons. 

Senior Citizen Apartments

These complexes are designed especially for senior citizens, and may include apartments for people with disabilities as well. There are specific criteria that a person must meet in order to live in one of those complexes. One of them is generally age, and that may vary from complex to complex. That is something that you are going to want to check into before you start to seriously look at the complex. No one wants to fall in love with something only to find out that they don't meet the criteria to move into the complex. One nice thing about those complexes is that they often have organized activities for their residents. That may be something as simple as card tournaments in a community room to going on overnight trips into town to see a show or go shopping. The complexes also tend to have shuttles that can take residents to places like the grocery store or doctors appointments. 

Assisted Living Apartments

Assisted living apartments are generally a step up from a senior citizen apartment complex, but a step down from a full residential facility. The assisted living centers are often associated with residential facilities, which makes it easy for your parent to move into the facility when it comes time for them to do that. Assisted living apartments still allow your parent to have some independence but with some added medical assistance. The apartments generally have a medical alert system, so if your parents need help, they can just hit a button. They may also have medical staff who can come in daily to help with things like wound care, medication issues, or just wellness checks. 

As your parents age, you and they are going to have to have some difficult discussions as to what is going to happen as the end of their lives nears. One of the things that you need to talk about is where they are going to live, whether that's senior apartments or somewhere else..