Top 5 Benefits of Choosing Independent Living or Assisted Living for an Aging Adult

Author

Cadence Aurora

Posted on

Oct 26, 2021

Book/Edition

Colorado - Denver Metro

When looking into independent living or assisted living communities, it makes perfect sense to be a little apprehensive. The decision to move to a senior living community is a major one. The decision has emotional and physical ramifications, so there are a variety of factors to think about.
According toa 2010 study conducted by Age Wave and Genworth Financial, the primary motivations for someone to consider assisted living and independent living apartments for seniors are:

They don't want to be a burden on their family physically or financially.

They want to make their own decisions about where and how they live.

They want to safeguard future security and quality of life for themselves and for their family members.

So, what benefits do residential communities have for older adults? How do apartments with assisted living amenities let them meet those goals?
Here are five benefits of Senior Living for aging adults, including options for Independent Living (IL), Assisted Living (AL), and Assisted Living with Memory Care (MC)under one roof:
1. Ease the Pressure of Caregiving on Your Spouse and Other Loved Ones
The biggest concern for us as we age? Being a burden on our family. Some 55% of respondents to the Age Wave survey said that burdening loved ones with their care is their single greatest worry. Residents at a high-quality assisted living community like the Tribute communities managed by Cadence Living don't have that worry. Thats because the Assisted Living Neighborhoods within Cadence communities are staffed by qualified personnel who are in tune with your unique needs, providing personalized care so your family doesn't have to.
Tributes assisted living services include, among others:

Assistance with medication management on a set schedule
Coordinating medical services and on-site doctor visits
Housekeeping and laundry
Transportation support with an on property personal shuttle
Assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADL)

Bathing
Dressing
Grooming and hygiene
Getting to and returning from meals and social activities (as needed)


2. The Assistance You Need. The Independence You Want 
As we age, it becomes even more important to maintain our independence, make our own decisions, and live life on our terms. Thats exactly what a good center for independent living offers to senior citizens. Independent living communities make life easier for older adults. When chores like meal preparation and housekeeping are taken care of along with coordination of medical needs. This means residents have more time to engage with neighbors, participate in community activities, and live Life In the Key of Beautiful.
One advantage of a senior living community like Tribute is enjoying the benefits of assisted living and independent living services at the same time. Whenever they wish, residents are free to lock their apartment door and head out, knowing that those amenities and services will be there when they get back.
A Tribute community is a place where residents can put themselves first maybe for the first time in recent memory!
3. Access to Advanced Memory Care Services When Needed
According to the Age Wave study, the most-feared disease of aging is Alzheimer's. Thats why the availability of memory care services is a significant factor when looking at apartments for assisted living. And that's another advantage of Cadences Tribute living: Within many of our senior communities for assisted living, memory care services are available on-site through our Revere Memory Care program.
Memory care is a key part of life at Cadence Livings Tribute communities. Revere Memory Care is a holistic engagement of the body, mind and spirit for those living with Alzheimer's or dementia. Using stimuli like music, dance, natural surroundings and sensory experiences, the Revere Memory Care program helps residents stave off cognitive decline and dementia.
4. Entertain Guests and Welcome Family in a Beautiful Home of Your Own
There nothing like the comforts of your own home especially when you're not taking care of it all. Residents of assisted living apartments don't have to worry about deep-cleaning carpets, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, or preparing meals. But they can still make themselves at home, decorating their apartments to suit their tastes making it a comfortable, familiar place for family and friends to visit.
The emotional toll of leaving a home you may have custom built or in which you raised a family can be heavy. But moving into an assisted living apartment can also allow you to distill down to the belongings that are most important to you. Some even find it liberating to be able to choose exactly what they're taking into this new chapter of their life and will even add a new flatscreen TV or mattress to the moving experience to make it more exciting. Whatever your situation, you'll still find the comfort of home within the community, and you'll have the benefit of helping hands as well as opportunities to socialize.
5. Enjoy Life in a Community Designed for Your Needs
From holistic activities to handrails, every aspect of life in Tributes independent living retirement communities has been built with residents' comfort, convenience, health, happiness, and camaraderie in mind.
In Cadence Livings Tribute communities, the rhythm of our community is paramount. We support the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of older adults through our integrated SYMPHONY program, including positive experiences like:

In-Tune Fitness
ENCORE Cuisine
Aria Arts
Cadence Choir
Backstage at Cadence
SESSIONS Life Enrichment

Yoga and exercise
Arts and crafts
Book clubs
Cultural events
Special celebrations


Perhaps the best perk about senior living communities is sharing memories and laughs with people from your generation.

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Primary Care for Seniors

   If you are satisfied with the clinicians at your primary care office, cherish those relationships.  For many reasons, it is getting more difficult to find primary care clinicians who go the extra mile for you and your loved ones.  If you are not content with your primary care team, I offer the following suggestions.    First, find a clinician (physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant) who enjoys listening to you and your stories.  The art of medicine is mostly about the art of listening.and believing what you share.  Listening and understanding build trust, essential for any good relationship.  Every city and small town in our country has such clinicians.     Second, appreciate that young nurse practitioners and physician assistants can listen to you and help sort out your problems every bit as well as a seasoned physician who is overworked and/or approaching retirement.  In my 40 + year career, Ive had the opportunity to train hundreds of NPs and PAs.  They gain the knowledge, expertise, and confidence to become great providers within 9-12 months of graduating from professional schools.  Often, they have more technical skills than older physicians.  This works to your advantage in the following ways.  Assume you have an unusual combination of symptoms.  They know how to explore the Internet and rely on specialists to find the best plan of care for you.  Now assume you need a steroid injection in a joint.  Many NPs and PAs can provide procedures that overworked physicians never learned.     Third, see the entire practice as your primary care provider.  A good practice has all members working together as a team.  The members include front office staff who greet you for in-person visits, medical assistants and nurses who answer your phone calls, and the clinicians who care for you in person or with tele-health visits.  If you find that any team member isnt respectful, you should feel free to discuss this with the office manager.  All good practices should welcome feedback.      Fourth, if you have the means and value extra attention, consider a concierge practice.  Unfortunately, concierge physicians are beyond the reach of the vast majority of seniors in our country.  Further, we are seeing a shortage of these physicians just as we are seeing a shortage of all primary care physicians.  This brings us back to my key message: you can find trust and comfort with a dedicated NP or PA.  When we consider the evolution of geriatric practice over the last 4 decades, we understand that it is NPs and PAs providing the vast majority of visits in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and in-home visits.Finally, it is important to understand the pressure and demands on your primary care office.  The advent of the electronic health records in the 1990s added a massive burden to all practices.  The hope (and the myth) was that EHRs would lead to higher quality medical care.  The reality is that EHRs havent improved true quality.  EHRs are the main reason so many good clinicians are feeling burned out.  The clinicians feel they have to pay more attention to the EHR (and quality metrics) than to the patient in front of them.  When you express your understanding of this dilemma to your clinical team, they greatly appreciate this.  Again, building understanding and trust leads to the best quality of care and beneficial outcomes. The article was written by Dr. Don Murphy, Geriatrician and Hospice Physician who plans to run for Governor of Colorado, on behalf of. He can be reached at murphdoc@comcast.net, his cell, 720-490-6757, or his main YouTube channel, TheCrazyMurphys5560. 

Reducing Useless or Harmful Medications

The greatest challenge for all who practice geriatrics is reducing polypharmacy, the addition of medications that either provide no benefit or cause harm to seniors.  Millions of seniors end up on many medications that are not helping them and could be causing side effects.  Geriatricians are the experts in what we call de-prescription, cutting down on unnecessary medications.        The key reasons seniors end up on too many medications are the following.  First, all physicians, including young geriatricians (as I was 30 years ago), have hope that newer medications will actually benefit our seniors.  The four medications we have used to treat dementia turn out to provide no benefit at all.  We cant appreciate this until we have been in practice for decades and know how to review all of the studies that suggest there might be some marginal benefit.  Also, one must practice for many years to understand how all medications, including over-the-counter medications, can cause difficult to diagnose side effects.  For the dementia medications, we had hoped that they either alleviated symptoms, delayed the onset of dementia, or slowed the progression of dementia.  It takes years of practice and experience to realize that these medications fail to help our seniors.      Second, many primary care clinicians (say, family medicine physicians) and specialists (say, cardiologists) tend to overvalue medical benefit for medications used for the most common conditions.  The best example would be blood pressure medications.  All geriatricians know that we approach frail seniors differently than we approach a robust 70-year-old or a healthy 45-year-old.  Many clinicians will treat everyone the same, such as trying to keep the systolic blood pressure around 120 and the diastolic pressure around 80.  Often, these pressures are simply too low for frail seniors and even for some robust seniors.  The medications can cause lightheadedness, falls, and fractures (to name just a few side effects).      Third, clinicians in traditional medicine often fail to appreciate the value of alternative healing and the value of the placebo effect.  Lets return to medications for dementia.  In recent years, we havent seen any commercials for the four medications I referred to above.  Weve seen many advertisements for Prevagen and Neuriva.  These medications have not been studied extensively like the four that required many studies and FDA approval.  If seniors feel more comfortable on these OTC medications, its probably from the placebo effect.  That is, they feel that they are at least doing something to counter the onset or progression of dementia.  The cost is affordable, and these individuals dont need a prescription from their doctor.  If the individual thinks Prevagen isnt helping, or may be causing side effects, he or she can stop it at any time.  They dont need permission from their physician.        Fourth, the pharmaceutical industry has specialized in direct-to-consumer advertising.  These are entertaining and convincing ads.  It doesnt matter what disease condition we are considering.  Every expert in marketing knows that these creative, subliminal messages get through.and result in more prescriptions.        Before sharing my suggestions for cutting down on your medications, let me share a story about Elsie, a 90-year-old woman I took care of in 1992.  She was feisty and funny.  She was on the 6 medications our team had prescribed for her.  Benign positional vertigo was one of her conditions.  One of my most memorable clinic visits was the one when Elsie reported that she followed that Harvard newsletter you gave me, Dr. Murphy, and it worked.  She did this complex maneuver all on her own, and it eliminated her dizziness.  Then she added, oh, and by the way, doctor, I threw all those doggone pills in the garbage.and I feel great now. So be it.  This approach worked well for Elsie, but I dont recommend it for others.  Here is what I suggest.       First, find the courage to question your clinicians.  Its not easy when you have put so much trust in your doctors recommendations.  Try the soft approach.  For example, you could say, Doctor, Im on a lot of medications and I worry that one of them might be causing some problems. You could mention a symptom youve been wondering about.  Then you ask, could I cut down on the dose of one of these medicines to see how I do?  If your physician agrees with this trial of dose reduction, you could ask which medication he or she would select to reduce the dose.        Second, you continue with the honest communication you have established.  You dont need to let your doctor know how you are doing a week or two later.  However, you should report that you are doing fine by calling the office staff that can document your success with the dose reduction.  Believe it or not, you are educating your primary care office about the value of dose reductions.        Third, when you have more confidence in the dose reduction approach, you can specify which medication(s) you would eventually like to discontinue.  You can share feedback youve received from family members and friends or from the research you or they have done.         Ever since the 1950s we have been moving from a paternalistic approach to health care (i.e., the doctor decides everything for your health) to a more patient-centered approach to health care.  This makes sense.  You know whats best for your overall health, including physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and any other dimensions of health.  Your clinicians job is to reflect your preferences.  Dose reductions of useless or harmful medications is just part of this evolution in health care.     Dr. Don Murphy, MD, FACP The article was written by Dr. Don Murphy, Geriatrician and Hospice Physician who plans to run for Governor of Colorado. He can be reached at murphdoc@comcast.net, or calling 720-490-6757, or his main YouTube channel, TheCrazyMurphys5560.  

Refresh Your Space in A Senior Living Community with These 10 Decor Ideas

Are you looking to breathe new life into your senior living space? Theres no better time than now to refresh your surroundings and create a comfortable, inviting, and functional environment. Here are ten decor ideas that will help you transform your space and make it a reflection of your personality and preferences.Idea 1: Color TherapyChoose the Right Colors - Color plays a significant role in setting the mood of a room. When selecting colors for your senior living space, consider the psychological impact they can have. Soft, muted tones like blues, greens, and lavender can create a calming atmosphere, while warm colors such as yellows, oranges, and reds evoke feelings of energy and happiness.Idea 2: FurnitureComfortable Seating - Your seating should be comfortable and supportive, allowing for relaxation and socialization. Consider chairs with lumbar support, padded armrests, and adjustable heights to accommodate various preferences and mobility levels.Multi-functional Furniture - Choose furniture that serves multiple purposes, like a lift-top coffee table or an ottoman with built-in storage. These pieces can help you save space and keep your living area tidy.Idea 3: LightingNatural Light - Maximize natural light by keeping window treatments light and sheer. Natural light can elevate your mood and make your space feel more open and invitingLayered LightingIncorporate different lighting sources such as ambient, task, and accent lighting. This approach allows you to create various moods while ensuring adequate illumination for daily activities.Idea 4: Wall DecorArtwork - Showcase your favorite artwork or prints to add personality and visual interest to your walls. Opt for pieces that evoke positive emotions and memories.Family Photos - Display family photos in coordinating frames to create a sense of connection and warmth. Group them together for a gallery wall effect or scatter them throughout the room.Mirrors - Mirrors can make a room feel larger and brighter by reflecting light. Place mirrors opposite windows or light sources to maximize their impact.Idea 5: TextilesRugs - A well-chosen rug can anchor your room and provide warmth and comfort underfoot. Look for rugs with non-slip backing and low pile for easier mobility and maintenance.Curtains - Choose curtains that complement your color scheme and provide privacy without blocking natural light. For a cozy feel, opt for heavier fabrics; for a light and airy atmosphere, select sheer or lightweight materials. Throw Pillows - Throw pillows can instantly add color, texture, and comfort to your space. Mix and match patterns and textures to create visual interest and a personalized touch.Idea 6: Indoor PlantsAir-purifying Plants - Introduce air-purifying plants like spider plants, snake plants, or peace lilies to your senior living space. They help remove toxins from the air and create a fresher, healthier environmentEasy-to-care Plants - Choose low-maintenance plants like succulents and pothos, which require minimal watering and care. They add a touch of greenery without demanding too much of your time and energy.Idea 7: Memory WallPersonal MemorabiliaDedicate a wall or section of your living space to showcase personal memorabilia such as travel souvenirs, awards, or keepsakes. This can serve as a reminder of your accomplishments and cherished memories. Shared ExperiencesInclude items that represent shared experiences with friends and family, such as group photos or mementos from special events. This can foster a sense of belonging and strengthen relationships with loved ones.Idea 8: Accessible DesignUniversal Design PrinciplesIncorporate universal design principles like wider doorways, lever-style door handles, and non-slip flooring to make your space more accessible and functional for everyone, regardless of age or mobility level.Aging in PlaceConsider implementing aging-in-place design features, such as grab bars in the bathroom, adjustable countertops, and proper lighting. These adjustments can help ensure your space remains comfortable and safe as your needs change over time.Idea 9: OrganizationDecluttering - Take time to declutter and remove unnecessary items from your living space. This can create a more open, peaceful, and manageable environment.Storage Solutions - Incorporate storage solutions like shelves, cabinets, or decorative storage boxes to keep your belongings organized and easily accessible.Idea 10: Personal TouchesHobbies and Interests - Display items that reflect your hobbies and interests, such as a collection of books, musical instruments, or sports memorabilia. This personal touch can make your space feel more like home.Cultural ElementsIncorporate elements of your cultural background into your decor, like traditional artwork, textiles, or pottery. This can provide a sense of connection to your roots and make your space feel more authentic.Dont worry, refreshing your senior living space is easier than you might think! With these ten decor ideas, you can create a cozy, functional, and personalized environment that truly feels like home. By adding your personal touch and incorporating elements that reflect your unique personality and preferences, you can enjoy the many benefits of a refreshed and revitalized living space. So why wait? Get started today and let your creativity shine!Integracare Senior Living CommunitiesAt Integracare, we know that finding the right care is important for you or your loved ones. Our communities all maintain the same high standards of care, and were always happy to help you find the perfect fit. Creating a comfortable and inviting space is essential for your well-being, and we hope that these ten decor ideas have inspired you to transform your senior living space into a reflection of your unique personality and preferences. If you have any questions or want to learn more about our communities, please dont hesitate to get in touch with us. Were here to help!