Seniors must be prepared

Dear Editor: I have been operating seniors’ homes in this beautiful Okanagan for more than 20 years. A common thread with the dozens of clients that have moved into my homes during those years in the stress level for the senior and their family. Not just because moving into a strange care home is stressful, but often the move is being made out of necessity after a crisis has hit the senior.

For example, the senior has been doing just fine living at home independently, doing the household chores and living life on their terms until that one misstep. Tripping on a household rug, falling on an uneven sidewalk and being admitted to the hospital. In and out surgery for hip repairs, a few days of recovery, then you hear the hospital needs the bed and the patient is being discharged tomorrow morning.

The senior could go home, but the confidence level is not the same after the fall. The memory is a little foggy after the anesthetic.

Life for a senior can go from living a life of independence and activity one week to needing home care or even a nursing home the next week. The senior and their family, in most cases, have not prepared for this eventuality.

If you are a senior still living at home, thinking you will never need in-home care or God forbid, a care home, or if you or a loved one if a senior in that position find five minutes here and there to make some calls, talk to some professionals about what options you and your loved one would have in an example such as the scenario above.

Know the people and departments you would need to contact, and the processes you would need to go through to get the results you, as a family, would want. Don’t wait for a crisis to hit. Like a good Boy Scout or Girl Guide, be prepared. John Lusted Summerland