Ask Dr. Scott
Finding a place for the parents
The hard choice when you know a parent can’t live on their own.
Q: Dr. Scott, my parents are aging and I feel like they need to get some help? What are the senior living options in Pueblo?
A: Misplaced items. Social bewilderment. Inability to recognize loved ones. The signs of memory loss and cognitive decline are devastating to witness in our parents — and difficult to comprehend. Rejoining a community of seniors and living once again in an active community can help your parents embrace this often-overlooked phase of their lives. Our parents and grandparents have lived on their own and as the head of their families for decades, but with increasing feebleness, working and living together in a community can really increase their happiness and sense of sharing in the new journey ahead. Seniors who join communities specifically created to serve their needs can improve their happiness, security, and health for the remainder of their lives.
In many cultures around the world, the elderly are revered as important members of their society. They often live with extended family and are recognized as valuable resources and keepers of the family’s wisdom. In the United States, however, we tend to view the aged as a burden and “less than” — to be relegated to nursing homes. As the 75 million Baby Boomers age, our society is increasingly demanding enjoyable, stimulating and safe senior living options, whether that means joining a community of active seniors or remaining at home with professional help for as long as possible.
With government assistance, some type of Senior Community Living is possible for most. Senior Living Centers include fully furnished accommodations, often with your choice of floor plans. Healthy, often delicious meals served restaurant-style three times a day…a place where ongoing relationships, conversations, and community-feeling occur. Loneliness, a large part of the ‘illness of aging’, is cured in this scenario.
It’s important to note that a majority of seniors have been eating improperly for years, as well as taking too many and inappropriate medications, which speeds their cognitive decline — both of these problems can be immediately improved in a Senior Living Center. Scheduled transportation to local shopping and entertainment, with a full calendar of social events, activities and multi-media entertainment are also really helpful lifestyle improvements that a Senior Living Center offers our parents. Housekeeping and laundering and 24-hour supervision by caring trained professional staff is a part of this picture.
In Southern Colorado there are over 60 of Senior Living Centers, many of them excellent, but choosing the right one for your parents will be a challenge, but one you will ultimately enjoy. It may be a good idea to find a Senior Living Center that offers tiered care, meaning your parents can start with intermittent care at various points during the day; then continuous care throughout the day if their health weakens further; followed by total comprehensive care throughout the day, if necessary. Life enrichment programs at Senior Living Centers should offer exercise, shared reminiscing in conversation, games, creative activities, music and song, sensory stimulation (including holistic massage and chiropractic), religious and social outings, nightly movies and socials, and more. Look for a Senior Living Center that offers abundant activities that stimulate memory such as live entertainment, small group activities, and vivid experiences.
These facilities always have medication assistance programs, usually managed by licensed nurses. The crisis of “polypharmacy of the elderly” which dramatically speeds up their cognitive decline has been recognized in modern medicine. (Park et al., 2017)
Realize that our loved ones’ life with cognitive decline and even Alzheimer’s disease can be seen as a glass mostly full or completely empty — each perspective is a state of mind. A person living in with Alzheimer’s is first “a person” and only then someone with a disease. People living with Alzheimer’s and dementia who use parts of their brains that still function well, feel enabled and competent, and are less apathetic, agitated, anxious and aggressive. Focusing on connecting our aging parents to abilities that don’t diminish with time — such as responding to music, art, facial expressions and touch — will help them throughout the course of their life.
If your parents decide to remain in their home for as long as possible, you should help them make changes to it that promotes safety and usability. For instance you can move bathrooms and bedrooms to the first floor, install grip bars in showers or tubs and by toilets, and have wheelchair and walker-accessible ramps built — all with the goal of keeping your parents mobile and preventing falls.
Through my clinical practice I have found that the majority of patients in this phase of life have more general problems with weakness, atrophy, stiffness, difficulty with walking and balance, muscular rheumatism, debility, low-energy and depression. The power of exercise and improved nutrition and muscle function can restore and rehabilitate these lives.
Remember that your parents’ living situation isn’t the only aspect of aging that contributes to their quality of life. Lifelong learning, challenging leisure pursuits, volunteerism, second and third careers, staying mentally and physically active, maintaining their roles as care-givers in the family, as well as understanding healthy nutrition are also essential components of aging gracefully. Each of these can be offered to your parents by your choice of the best Senior Living Center.
Dr. Scott Cuthbert is the chief clinician at the Chiropractic Health Center in Pueblo, Colorado, as well as the author of two new textbooks and over 50 peer-reviewed research articles. PuebloChiropracticCenter.com.
