As your mother and father took care of you, fed you, taught you, and generally looked after you as you grew into a young adult, you’ll naturally want to look after them when they’re poorly or as they slow down with age.
Care homes are specially designed and run with residents’ health, well-being and happiness at the forefront and if your parent will shortly, or else recently has, moved into one, here’s how to help them to relax and settle in.
Decorate Their Room Exactly as They Would Like
You’ll already be fully aware of the supreme power that sentimental items such as photographs and letters can have on anyone of any age, but for older adults living in a care home, the link and reminders of their past are even more important.
Prepare a scrapbook with things from around your home and the homes of your brothers and sisters, too, with everything from cinema tickets to candid photographs and give this to your mom or dad.
It would also be pertinent to point out that, if your parent is living with dementia, photographs and videos have also been known to prompt memories, too.
Encourage Them to Socialize
As long as your parent is moving into a well-respected and renowned care home, such as morriscare.co.uk, for example, you can rest assured that their individual needs, wants and desires will have a continuing influence on their care plan and indeed, their food and social activity calendar, too.
Encourage your mom or dad to at least take a look at the social calendar and begin to form connections with the people they’re sharing their home with. The best way to feel as if they belong is to become familiar not only with the layout and facilities of the care home, but also with their fellow residents.
Recreate Their Home’s Sensory Experience
Even if your parents kept a very tidy, clean and almost minimalist home for many years, there will have still been an ambience, atmosphere and even a comforting smell to the rooms which came together to make them feel at home.
Obviously, the communal areas of your parent’s care home aren’t overly suitable for personalization in this way, but when it comes to their private room; anything goes. Do everything you can to set apart your mom or dad’s room from the rest of the building by creating a sensory experience, ideally one that’s reminiscent of their own home.
Simple things such as using the same air freshener as they used before, and perfumes or aftershaves sprayed onto bedding and towels can make a huge difference to their sense of belonging.
In addition, where feasible, if your parent always sat in a certain chair to watch television of an evening, bring the chair into their new room, complete with cushions and throws, too. This way, their new home will smell, look, and feel much more like their own private space in which they can relax and feel safe in.
