Do you find you’re struggling more and more with the stairs in your home? Or wishing you could give up your weekly routine of cleaning, cooking, and doing yard work? Or are you starting to think you might start needing some level of assistance?
Moving into senior housing can seem like a major lifestyle change. It can feel like giving up your independence, but today’s senior apartments have changed. You have a wider range of options, from senior apartments perfect for those looking to downsize to housing that provides greater levels of care, whether it’s occasional assistance or intensive memory care.
You need to see what modern senior living looks like if you’ve been thinking it may be time to move out into some place simpler.
1) Independent Living
More and more, senior housing options have become great options for older adults who are living independent, active lives. While they provide 24/7 security and available assistance, you’re free to come and go as you please, and many suites come with fully equipped kitchens if you prefer to prepare your own food.
2) Active Living
Active living for older adults is about getting out, getting exercise, using physical activity to age healthily, and maintaining social connections. Senior communities today facilitate active living a number of ways, including a robust schedule of fitness classes like chair yoga, Tai Chi, and dancing.
They can also help facilitate social bonds and connections with games nights, movie nights, and intergenerational programs with local school kids.
3) Health and Wellness
Beyond exercise and fitness, your health includes diet, activities that sharpen your memory, and mental health. When it comes to food, good active senior living communities today focus on creating meals that are both delicious and meet the changing nutritional requirements of older adults.
They also provide plenty of opportunities to sharpen your memory. Puzzle solving like sudoku and other games that flex your brain muscles have proven effects lowering dementia risks. Today’s retirement residences take a well-rounded approach to health and wellness.
4) Aging in Place
The biggest concern you should have before you downsize and move is whether or not your new home will be appropriate years from now. Age expectancies are getting longer around the world, and while that’s great news, it also means seniors today need to think further into the future.
You want to move somewhere that you know you can call home, where you can comfortably age in place as long as you desire, no matter what health challenges you may experience.
5) Access to Necessities & Amenities
When you’re choosing somewhere to live, you want to be close to both essentials like clinics, medical professionals, and pharmacists, so that you can access them and get to appointments when you need to.
But don’t limit your criteria to medical facilities. You also want to be close to shops, restaurants, and places to socialize. There’s a growing recognition that seniors need access to their city, which means being able to walk or use public transportation to access services, whether they’re essential or just things that are “nice-to-have.” Going for a spontaneous ice cream cone, after all, is the kind of thing that makes life that much sweeter.
Modern senior living has come a long way. Tour some senior living residences and see what’s new.