Important Considerations For Choosing A Home For Your Senior
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against the world” situation. But if the senior citizen you are caring for has little fight left in them, it seems it’s up to you to make sure that your elderly mom or dad get all they have coming. Just because a person enters their twilight years, that doesn’t mean their fundamental rights go away. They deserve and should expect to be treated with respect and for those providing their care to live up to expectations.
While there is no formal “Senior Citizens Bill of Rights”, there are laws on the books about how nursing homes must treat senior citizens. And even if your mother or father is in an assisted care facility and not a nursing home, there are some basic expectations that were in that contract and that are fundamentally assumed that the facility will honor. And its up to you as the caregiver to make sure they are honoring what is expected of them.
First of all, the facility your senior citizen lives at should be able to provide the basics of safety and cleanliness. Look at the evacuation plan for the facility in the event of a fire or another emergency that would mean getting your parent out of the building. Is it a plan that is clear and is it workable considering the entire facility is full of elderly people who may not move very quickly? And what about emergency power? In the event of an emergency where the power is cut off, is there emergency backup power to operate elevators and automatic doors so everyone can leave the building?
If the facility offers food service as part of their package of services and if there is a charge for that service, there is a basic expectation that there will be meals made available 3 times a day, that it will be healthy food and that your parent will never be denied service. It is also reasonable to expect that the food could be delivered to the senior citizens’ rooms if your parent is ill or injured.
As we talked out earlier, your parent didn’t lose his or her rights as a human being when they move into an assisted care facility. If your parent is paying to use that apartment, they have a right to live as they please in there. Within certain constraints since they are in a community environment such as keeping noise down after bedtime and the like, your parent should be able to do what he or she wants to do in the privacy of their home without interference from others in the community or from the staff of the complex. This includes having guests, allowing family or friends to stay over, the apartment decorations and what kind of music your parent enjoys.
A right that really cannot be detailed but can be felt dramatically is your parent’s right to be treated with dignity, compassion and respect. This is an intangible but the way in which the staff of the facility treat the inhabitants means a lot to your parent when they interact with these people every day. It’s not unreasonable to expect the staff and management of the facility to know your parents names and to greet them warmly when they come down to eat or go to a social event.
If the staff of the facility have to work directly with your parent, it should be done with a respectful and pleasant attitude. If your parent reports verbal or emotional abuse going on by the staff, that is cause for you to investigate and hold that facility to account for that problem.
Remember the old saying that the squeaking wheel gets the oil. So if the facility needs to be reminded of their responsibilities, you be that squeaky wheel. Be your parents advocate so that they can live in a place where they enjoy their days and feel that this is a place they can genuinely call home.
