It has been just over a year since your dad passed. As unbelievable as it seems that it has already been that long since you have been able to have him in for our Sunday dinners, have a conversation with him, enjoy his company, the months have been both slow and fast. In that time your entire family has spent many hours, with thanks to your brother and his wife who spent lots of extra focus, emptying out a full, full, full house and attic of a lifetime’s accumulation of your parents’ marriage. And now, your childhood home is finally on the market. A small house, smaller to me now than it seemed to me then, but you realize you never really thought about the size as you were both happy and lucky. You grew up in a home filled with love and laughter and teasing, not to mention a million books. You are sad to see it for sale.
Good bye, home that was so good to you. The bedroom with the bright orange carpet that you loved so much will surely be changed out to something more trendy by the new owners.
Moving Out of a Long Time Family Home Is Often a Difficult Transition
Whether you are selling a home after a parent’s death or you are trying to help your parent or grandparent transition into one of the local skilled nursing facilities, there will be challenges. The homes where we grow up provide tradition, comfort, and memories. Aside from all of the necessary conversations about living wills, do not resuscitate forms, and funeral arrangements, the actual decision to move to a long term care facility or other option is rarely easy. Sure, there are times when an accident occurs and the rehabilitation necessary needs to take place in skilled nursing facilities in the area, but there are many more times when families have to eventually reach the conclusion that living at home is no longer a safe or healthy option.
Fortunately, there are resources that can help adult children and grandchildren initiative these difficult conversations. The reality, however, is that these kinds of topics are still too often avoided until the family is facing the need for an immediate decision. Just as most of know that preventative and precautionary conversations about many topics in life are important, there are too many times when a family does not really consider the details of aging until it is nearly too late. Trying to talk to your father who is dealing with the early stages of dementia about which skilled nursing facilities he would like to consider is rarely productive. Those same conversations a decade earlier, however, are often difficult to approach as well.
As the entire nation faces an increasing number of aging parents and grandparents, it should come as no surprise that there is an entire industry built around the topics of transitional housing options and the need for around the clock care for parents, grandparents, and, many times, spouses. Consider some of these facts and figures about the many times when making a decision about where to move a loved one who can no longer live on their own is important:
- Jumping from 12% to 22%, the world’s population of people aged 60 and over is expected to double between the years 2015 and 2050.
- In fact, the latest research indicates that rehabilitation services constitutes almost 33% of all health care expenditures in the U.S.
- Starting a trend of relative growth within the senior population that will continue until 2030, the first baby boomers turned 65 in the year 2011.
- Nearly 70% of Americans turning 65 will need long-term care at some point.
- 64% of people 65 and older in nursing homes have Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, a fact that requires special kinds of care.
- To meet the need of the nation’s aging population, there are 15,655 skilled nursing care centers in the U.S., according to data from the American Health Care Association.
Skilled nursing facilities, short and long term rehab facilities, and other transitional options are an important need for many families.
