Category: Senior Living

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Ideas On Activities to Do with Your Loved One in An Assisted Living Facility

If your elderly loved one lives in an assisted living facility, visiting is surely the most important way to stay in touch. While spending time at the facility, in your loved one’s room, in the common area or in the park is great, there are many other enjoyable ways to spend quality time together – here are some ideas from Castle Rock Senior Living care givers.

Castle Rock Senior Living

Bring Visitors with You

Many people in assisted living feel isolated and lonely, even if they get occasional visits from family members. Feeling more connected to their loved ones eases that loneliness, so transform your next visit into a small family reunion by bringing along other family members that might make your elderly loved one feel important. Arranging for video chats with relatives who live far away might also make your elderly loved one happy.

One of the problems commonly encountered by people visiting relatives in assistant living is that they don’t know what to say and what to talk about during their visits – bringing along children and teens might be a great way out of that issue and so is sharing some old or current family photos with your loved one.

Have a Meal or Snack Together

If the condition of your loved one allows, you might try to arrange for a meal outside the care facility. You can take your relative to a nearby restaurant or, even better, if the person you are visiting had a favorite eating place in the area, you can visit that place to bring back memories.

Go on a Short Outing

If your loved one’s health permits, visiting a nearby spot of interest or a place that your relative liked, such as a lake or a park, is also a great way to spend some quality time together and to bring in some variety. Don’t pick a place that requires good physical condition to visit – not being able to cover the planned distance walking might be frustrating and exhaustion can be harmful for the elderly.

Read Aloud

Reading aloud is an especially great activity if your elderly loved one is bedridden or is vision-impaired. It is a great way to entertain your relative while also expressing how much you care without having to find something to talk about.

Watching Your Loved One’s Favorite Show Together

Watching TV together is a common pastime with friends and family, so why not try it with your elderly loved one? If there is a TV in your relative’s room in the care facility, you might want to consider getting a DVD player and some movies that your relative likes or liked – watching those old movies together is another great way to spend time together in a way that is relaxing and enjoyable involved, even if conversation is difficult to make.

Play A Game

Chess, poker, bridge or other games are not only great forms of entertainment – they are also excellent for improving alertness, focus and other mental and cognitive skills. If your elderly relative used to have a passion for a game, bring along a board and play that game together.

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How Much Can We Expect to Pay for Assisted Living in Denver?

Back in the old days, people wouldn’t have much of an option to care for their elders. Nursing homes were available, but conditions made even the least picky of seniors want to avoid them at all cost. Fortunately, times have changed and nowadays there are a whole host of advanced and modern facilities and centers offering such services as assisted living – which is a customized type of senior care allowing for greater freedom of movement for elders who don’t need as much support with their daily chores and medication.

assisted living Denver Colorado

The Benefits Offered by Modern Assisted Living Centers

There is a huge difference between aiming for advanced assisted living services in a larger city like Denver, when compared with similar services offered in smaller cities. You can gain access to better medical care, amenities such as swimming pools and impressive gyms, as well as access to better living conditions overall.

Denver is also considered to be one of the friendliest and most pleasant cities to live in throughout Colorado. The slightly higher costs that people here might need to pay for services like assisted living and adult day care are considered by most assisted living Denver Colorado experts to be quite worthwhile.

The Cost of Assisted Living in Denver

When it comes to comparing assisted living Denver Colorado costs versus Colorado in general, there are a few important points to keep in mind. First of all, in Colorado, assisted living is continuing to gain traction, as more and more people have been moving to the area in recent years, so it stands to reason that the prices might go up to some extent, and it explains why larger Colorado cities rank as more expensive not only for assisted living, but for adult day care, home care and nursing home costs. Secondly, Denver is the fastest growing city in Colorado, and yet the prices are only slightly higher than the statewide average, while in cities like Colorado Springs and Boulder, the price required for assisted living is significantly higher.

If you want to get support for assisted living in Denver, the average cost would be about $4,700 per month, according to a recent 2019 survey. Compared to that cost, slightly smaller towns like Fort Collins and Grand Junction have a somewhat more affordable cost.

Getting Financial Support

One of the great benefits of looking for senior care in Denver is that you have access to a lot of government organizations and programs without having to travel too far. Financial support is more readily available with various insurance benefits and old age programs that can be of great help in reducing your costs.

For instance, you can try the Home and Community Based Services Waiver (HCBS), which is a Medicaid waiver that no longer had a waiting list or cap for eligible seniors as of 2018. The Old Age Pension Program (OAP) and the Adult Foster Care Program (AFC) are two other programs that offer seniors with a lower income additional support to pay for their senior care services. The OAP is based mainly on monthly income, while the AFC only accepts elders with a low income that need 24-hour supervision.

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How to Find The Perfect In-Home Care Agency

 We want to believe that we will always be independent and able to lead and active life. But the golden years bring with them less physical strength, and sometimes even illness. When you feel that simple daily chores are too strenuous to perform, it means that you need extra help. This help may come from an in-home care agency.

What Does an In-Home Care Agency Do?

Home care Castle Rock agencies employ professional caregivers who go to the clients’ home to assist them with daily tasks. This is a very good option for people who want to continue living in their own home, instead of selling it and move to an assisted living facility.

Hiring a caregiver from an in-home care agency is a win-win situation: you continue to be an independent homeowner, but you also receive the help you need.

Thus, when the time comes, here are the steps you should go through in order to find the ideal in-home care agency that fits your needs:

home care Castle Rock

  1. Discuss Your Health and Special Needs with Your Doctor

The first step is to ask your doctor to give you an honest overview of your current health condition and a prognosis for the next few years. This will give you an idea of the amount and type of help you will need from an in-home care agency.

Thus, if you are just getting a little slower and less physically fit, you may not need a specialized caregiver with medical training, but just some help with daily chores like house cleaning and shopping.

  1. Assess Your Budget

Before you move on with your research, determine how much money you afford to pay for in-home care services. In view of the expenses you will have to bear, step 1 is very important. If you do not need specialized care, you will pay less for these services.

It is important to consider every reliable source of income. Thus, if you are running a small side business from home, consider what happens when you become too frail to be able to continue running it.

  1. Do Your Research

Here comes the moment when you are actually looking for home care Castle Rock agencies. First of all, you should restrict your research to agencies in your local area. You can rely on elderly neighbors, relatives and friends for recommendations – in fact, that should be your first type of research.

Once you move to online searches, make sure that you check the agency’s reputation, either on the Better Business Bureau website, or among testimonials and reviews made by other clients.

  1. Schedule an Initial Appointment

Usually, the first meeting with the representatives of an in-home agency will give you a sense of how they operate. It is important to find a good fit, not just from the financial point of view, but in the approach they have to in-home care.

Some agencies have a strictly professional approach; others add a friendly and familiar touch to their services. It is up to you to decide which attitude you are more comfortable with.

  1. Pick the Winner

If you’ve gone through all the steps above carefully, you will certainly find the perfect in-home care agency for you. It’s time to relax and enjoy life, knowing that you are in good hands.