2 Ways To Make Your Loved One's Transition To Assisted Living Easier

When a senior is making the move into an assisted living facility, they may be very overcome with conflicting emotions. You know this move is important for their health and well-being and they may know it too, but change can be difficult for anyone, including seniors. It can help ease the transition greatly by helping them hold onto what they can from their old life, even if only temporarily, by following these two tips. 

1. Help them Keep Their Landline Number

While a simple phone number may seem insignificant at times, a senior who has had the same phone number in the same home for decades may not like the idea of having a brand-new number. They may fear they won't be able to remember it, if they have been having memory issues, or a change in number may just feel like another way they are losing the past. 

If they are making a move within the same geographic area, they can keep it, according to the FCC, by using a process called porting. You must make sure they do not cancel their telephone service until the number is activated at the new address to make porting possible. Contact the local phone company for full information about porting in your area. 

If the number cannot be ported to their new landline due to location, you may, alternatively, be able to transfer their old landline number to a cell phone. 

2. Offer to Hold Onto Furniture and Other Household Items During the Move

If your loved one is downsizing from a larger home, then there will likely be many home items that they simply cannot fit into their new apartment. While your first instinct may be to help them sell or donate the items before the move, it can be a great idea to offer to temporarily hold onto the items your senior feels most attached to. Seeing their children's old beds and other sentimental items being sold or given away to random strangers can make the move feel even more overwhelming emotionally. 

While you don't want to make your home unlivable by storing all of these items in it, remember it is only temporary. Once your senior is settled in and enjoying their new residence, slowly bring up one piece you are keeping at a time and ask if you have their permission to donate it to a needy person. Once the initial shock of the move wears off, knowing their sentimental household items will be put to good use instead of sitting in your home and collecting dust may actually delight them instead of angering them. 

Remember that change can be difficult for many people, and moving from a home you may have lived in for decades can be tough for anyone. If your senior is making the move into an assisted living facility like The Village At Morrisons Cove, do what you can to help them feel like they are losing all memories of the past during the move.