How to Help Your Parents Live Their Best Lives

While your parents once took care of your needs during your earliest years, it is now your turn to help them. This can mean a wide variety of things to numerous people. It could mean inviting parents to live in your home, finding them an independent living community, checking in on them regularly, or lining up cleaning and cooking services for them. The key is to discover exactly what services or helps your parents need in order to live their best lives now.

Discuss Living Situations

Your parents may no longer be able to live in their home. Perhaps there are too many steps, or they may live out in the country with no neighbors close to them. Consider whether they should move into town, look into an independent living community, or possibly move in with your parents if the circumstances allow it. Be sure that you have the time, resources, and patience to make living with your parents a smart reality.

Help Them Find a Supportive Community

Wherever your parents decide to live, help them get involved with a supportive community. This could be found at a local church or community center as well as with community programs in your parents’ independent living community. They should have a support system in place to provide them with physical, emotional, and spiritual help.

Address Safety Issues

While you should address such potential problems as steps in the home, loose railings, and slippery rugs, safety issues can also include concerns about independent driving and financial management. Find professionals, such as personal accountants or driving services, that can help meet your parents’ needs in these areas.

Help Manage Health Issues When Necessary

If your parents are becoming forgetful, they may need help remembering when they have a doctor’s appointment or when they need to take medications. However, even if your parents have no problems with memory, it can still be difficult to keep track of multiple medical and dental appointments as well as upcoming tests and regularly scheduled laboratory work that may be a part of managing chronic health conditions.

Be Available

Finally, be sure that you are available to your parents even if you live far away. A telephone call, greeting card, or a trip down memory lane with the help of photographs can keep your familial connection strong throughout the years.