Action Step Eight: Nursing Home care

If you were thought out about the day you were going to care for your mom, you may have made arrangements for nursing home insurance early on in your planning. This is a form of insurance, which is very affordable when mom is younger and gets more costly the older she gets.

If you do not have nursing home insurance, then you need to get creative on how to pay for nursing home care because it is expensive, and for good reason.
Check your Medicare and Medicaid to see how much they will pay and for how long.

After a hospital stay, many medical insurances will cover some nursing home stay for the purpose of rehabilitation.

Assisted living is an alternative to nursing home care. Assisted living facilities have community living environments for seniors that include regular meals, laundry service, activities, and security in a safe living space. The apartments come in one and two bedroom and are equipped will pull cord emergency systems just in case. They are also staffed with personnel who make sure the facility runs smoothly.

Action Step Seven: Make a change grid for your mom

Action Step Seven: Make a change grid for your mom
This suggestion incorporates several techniques for helping mom deal with change.
Manage a grid or list of all the changes in your mom’s life and associated tools for helping her deal with the changes. For example of the TV channels, you could set her remote control to all of her favorite channels so all she has to do is press one button to surf. Another suggestion would be to make a list of all her favorite channels and keep it by her TV so she can reference it when Watching TV.

Another might be to get her a TV guide magazine so she can see the channels at a glance as well as the programming for each.
Another scenario might be to help her learn how to use a microwave oven; you might get her a microwave cookbook. Possibly sign her up for microwave cooking lessons. Another might be to make a list of settings for associated operations like warming up coffee etc….

Lesson Seven: Dealing with change

Lesson Seven: Dealing with change
Around every corner in life, there is change. What was once a vibrant active young lady is now a senior citizen needing help with day-to-day activities. Change is never easy and this section is designed to help you deal with the change that is occurring and has already occurred in yours and your mom’s life.

One thing we want to communicate is that change is inevitable; it will take place regardless of how we react to it. So we might as well embrace and respect change. It is easier to go with the flow instead of against it. So how do we understand change and cope with it? We feel the best way is conversation. By discussing change with a family member or friend, it takes a bit of the pressure and ramification of change down a few notches. Holding the regret and bad feelings of change inside without discussing it will only fester and make mom feel bad.

Think about the changes that have occurred in your mom’s life. She was once a vibrant young woman and now she looks and feels very differently. Technology has presented many changes also. My mom still has problems with the TV and cable remote controls. When she was younger, there were 5 TV channels. Today, some communities have as many as 250 channels. You would think that is an advantage but it is not always for mom. She looks at it as confusing.