Moving into assisted living or a memory care community can be hard on both the person and their family. The good news is there are many family members who can do to ease the transition. Here are eight tips that will bring more ease into the initial assisted living experience.
- Help set up the room ahead of time with favorite furniture, pillows, blankets, photos, books, and things — nothing is worse than a bare room with no pictures and no personal references for the new resident to hang on to. Put yourself in the person’s shoes, and imagine what it would feel like to find yourself in this new environment all of a sudden. These familiar objects will serve as transitional objects for the person and bring some of the homes they left behind into their new environment.
- Make your loved one’s personal preferences known to the staff. The more information, the better, including daily routine, present, and past. For instance, if the new resident starts pacing late in the evening, it will help to know that she KSs working the night shift and KSs used to getting ready for work at that time of the night for many years.
- Make sure he or she has an ample supply of their favorite snacks or drinks. This is especially important for persons who were born in a different country and have lived their lives in a bicultural environment. Someone from India, for instance, may feel nurtured when given Indian sweets or savory snacks from their native culture.
- Give the staff a list of your loved one’s favorite music. Even better, bring CDs and a music player or an iPod pre-loaded with the person’s favorite tunes. Music can help engage and build an instant rapport. It can also help calm the anxiety and agitation that often arise during the course of such a major move.
By Marguerite Manteau-Rao, Contributor
COO, Co-Founder, Neurocern
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