Deciding how often to visit a senior parent living in an assisted living community can be challenging. Balancing your desire to spend quality time with them while respecting their independence isn’t always easy. Yet, your visits can provide comfort, joy, and a sense of belonging to your loved one.
How often you should visit a senior parent in assisted living depends on many factors, including your parent’s preferences, their needs, your availability, and how close you are to the community. There’s no 1 right answer, but there are details you can consider for guidance. Saddlebrook Senior Living is here to help guide you through the process.
The Benefits of Regular Visits
It’s been well-established that socializing provides many benefits to seniors. Whenever you visit your loved one, you’re contributing to their mental, physical, and emotional health in several different ways.
- Boosting Their Mood: Seeing familiar faces can lift spirits and stave off depression and loneliness, which can lead to all sorts of other health problems.
- Keeping Their Mind Sharp: Staying social, especially while doing activities that are mentally challenging, can help your loved one stay mentally fit.
- Keeping Their Body Fit: Doing physical activities together, like walking, golfing, or gardening, can help your loved one stay physically fit.
- Monitoring Their Well-Being: Visiting your loved one in an assisted living community can help you monitor their personal well-being and provides an opportunity for you to make recommendations to staff about your parent’s personal preferences or care needs.
Factors to Consider
While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, several factors can help determine the frequency of your visits. It’s important to consider both yourself and your loved one to find the right balance of how often to visit them.
Your Parent’s Needs & Preferences
Some seniors thrive on daily interactions, while others prefer less frequent visits. Consider having a conversation with your loved one about their preferences. Understanding their social needs can guide you in creating a comfortable visiting schedule.
Your Availability
Balancing work, family, and other responsibilities can be challenging. Establish a realistic schedule that suits both you and your loved one. Consistency is key—even if it’s not daily, choosing set days for your visits can provide your loved one with something to look forward to.
Proximity
Living close to your loved one’s community often makes more frequent visits feasible. If distance is a challenge, consider scheduling longer visits or using technology like video calls to stay connected in between trips.
Community Activities
Many assisted living communities offer a range of social activities and events. Coordinate your visits with special events or outings that your loved one might enjoy, allowing you to share those experiences with them.
Tips for Meaningful Visits
To make the most of your time together, consider the following:
- Set a Routine: Knowing in advance that you’ll be visiting gives your parent a sense of stability and something to look forward to. If your loved one suffers from cognitive impairments, the act of maintaining a regular routine may help their mental health, too.
- Be Flexible: Routine has its benefits, but be careful not to be too strict. Trying to stick too closely to a routine can make you come off as demanding, and make your loved one feel like they’re a hassle.
- Be Present with Each Other: It’s easy for people to get preoccupied with the number of things they have going on in their lives. If you let those things distract you, neither you nor your loved one may enjoy your visit as much as if you’d been fully present in the moment.
- Plan Activities: Engage in activities your parent enjoys, such as playing cards, reading together, or going for a walk. If the circumstances allow it, you could even take them for a more involved outing, like a picnic or a shopping trip.
- Be an Active Listener: Active listening is a great technique to make sure that everyone in a conversation feels heard and listened to. Ask open-ended questions about your parent’s daily routine, favorite memories, or interests to spark meaningful conversations.
- Bring Special Guests: Extending the opportunity for others to visit your loved one with you can make for an extra special occasion. Maybe you can bring along an old friend of theirs to visit with, or have a mini family reunion. And what senior doesn’t like seeing their grandkids?
- Bring a Gift: Your visit itself will be the most important part, but people rarely object to receiving gifts. There are a huge range of gifts that can brighten your loved one’s day, from a scrapbook full of photos, to comfy clothes like a sweater or a pair of slippers, or even a favorite snack or drink.
Make the Most of Your Visits
While each situation is unique, the most important part of visiting a loved one is ensuring that the time you spend together is meaningful and supportive. By considering your parent’s needs and your own capacities, you can create a regular visiting schedule that enriches both of your lives.Saddlebrook Senior Living is dedicated to making sure you and your loved one can spend quality time together. For more information on how we can help, schedule a tour with us today!
