You may be at the stage where you are unable to juggle all your commitments well. You find it difficult to care for your loved ones and at the same time do well at work and maintain your relationships. As such, you believe that bringing your loved ones to an assisted living community would be the best option. However, your loved ones may be resistant to changes. This could be because they have to move to a new city and new environment that scares them or they may feel that once they move into the retirement community, they will be forgotten. It is important to assure them that they will not be forgotten when they move to an assisted living. You can emphasize how fun and great the amenities, environment and the apartment will be so that they can look forward to it. This way, they can be more open to the idea of moving to assisted living. They may refuse assisted living for various reasons and it is good to always understand where they are coming from so that you can address these fears and doubts head on. Here is what you can do if your loved ones refuse assisted living!
Take Them on a Tour of the Facility
You may be verbally sharing about how good the assisted living community is but your loved ones will never really believe it until they see it for themselves. Your loved ones may have certain misconceptions of the retirement community because of what they heard from friends. They may also confuse retirement communities with nursing homes. You can choose to take a virtual tour online to see the facilities, amenities and apartments, putting their mind at ease. Alternatively, you can bring your loved ones over to the retirement community so that they can see the amenities and apartments for themselves. They will be able to engage with the team at the retirement community if they have questions, so that their doubts are being properly addressed. Seeing a tour of the facility will definitely assure them that their care will be in good hands. This will reduce any level of anxiety and uncertainty.
Being Patient with Them
Patience is so important, especially when you are caring for your loved ones. You should not try to badger them constantly on choosing a good retirement community because it makes them frustrated. This is liken to how you do not like being nagged by your parents. If we continue to badger them, they may become resistant to the idea of moving into a retirement community. Change takes a lot of time and patience. It takes your loved ones courage to decide to move to somewhere new, and it takes time to prepare the heart and mind to do so. Provide the necessary information they need to make a decision and give them time to consider it. Once they have made their decision, respect their decision.
