By Columbine Health Systems, originally published in The Coloradoan
In the heat of July it is hard to imagine that winter is just around the corner. But when it comes to planning for elderly loved ones, summer is the perfect time to prepare for the coming winter.
Aging and the increasing needs of elderly loved ones isn’t something that most people want to think about. But as with most things, putting off making these plans is not the best choice. Unfortunately, the aging process only moves in one direction, and the more time that goes by the more likely the need for help and care becomes.
Summertime is the best time to plan a move for loved ones into assisted living. Things are usually less busy and there are less external factors to manage that complicate life for everyone.
“We always get a huge rush of requests for space as soon as the weather starts to get colder,” said Yvonne Myers, Health Systems Director for Columbine Health Systems. “People tend not to see some of the difficulties their loved ones might be having during the summer months because they are more manageable. And then it seems to hit everyone at once that winter is going to make a minor inconvenience right now into a potentially big problem in the cold and snow.”
Wintertime is always just around the corner in Colorado, and Myers recommends thinking of summer as a perfect time to prepare for the winter. For people thinking about whether a move to an assisted living community might be a good idea for their loved one, there are a few things that should be considered.
Property maintenance
Home, yard and property maintenance is hard enough to keep up with for the most hale and hearty of us, and even more so in the depths of a Colorado winter. Shoveling snow is a hard business, as is prepping pipes for the first big freeze, trying to locate the source of a drip in the ceiling, figuring out emergency repairs to the furnace and trying to battle bugs and critters making their way into the warmth of the house as the cooler weather sets in.
