When is it Time for Assisted Living?

One of the hardest things a caregiver will ever have to do is to know when it’s time for your loved one to move to a long-term care facility. Often, caregivers will wait far too long before seeking appropriate options for their loved one.

• Identifying some of the following may help make the decision process a little easier, and define certain things a little more clearly for you.
• A long-term care facility may be needed if:
• Your relative’s condition keeps getting worse and is becoming too much for you to handle on your own.
• No matter how hard you try to give care to your loved one, it’s just not enough.
• You feel as if you are the only one around who is having to care for someone who is ill or elderly.
• You’re not receiving any type of respite, and it doesn’t look like anything can be arranged for you to get much-needed time away or rest.
• Relationships with other family members are breaking down because of the time you must dedicate to caring for one person.
• Your caregiving responsibilities are beginning to greatly interfere with your work and personal life.
• You have feelings of guilt when it comes to taking care of yourself.
• Your coping skills are beginning to include self-destructive behavior, such as eating too much or too little, increased drug use or alcohol use, or losing emotional control too often.
• You rarely experience any moments of happiness, but have too many real moments of exhaustion, anger, and resentment.
• You hold your feelings in, never allowing them to be shared with a friend or with a professional.

You may very well have experienced many, if not all of these things from time-to-time, or by now they may have become your constant companion. If so they are signs that you need to find help as soon as possible and that moving your loved one into a long-term care facility might be the best option.

Remember that long-term care placement is not the end of your responsibilities as your loved one’s caregiver, it is just a change in your job description.