Adult Foster Care Home is New Home

An adult foster care home can be an ideal solution for an elderly family member. Mrs. R is a 93-year old woman who has lived in Beaverton, OR with her 70-year old son for several years. Her son “E” loves his mother and was a good caregiver for her, but at the same time he wanted to retire and be a snowbird part of the year. He was conflicted about what to do about his mother. She is a lovely woman who needs assistance showering and help in and out of a back brace in the morning and evening. She is also legally blind and needs help with medication administration. Her son felt uncomfortable helping his mother with her shower, so would ask his sister to come over and assist…

“E” contacted us and asked what would be good senior living options for his mother. We talked about assisted living and adult foster care. Mrs. R has a pleasant personality but is not very social around a lot of people, and since she can’t see well she does not participate in card games, board games, and the like. She feels more comfortable in a small setting. For this reason, we ruled out assisted living and decided to concentrate on adult foster care homes in the Beaverton area.

Move to Independent Living Community Brings Relief to Family

Fred and Mary lived next door to their son and daughter in law. As they aged their son and daughter in law started doing more and more around the house for them. It started with mowing the lawn and within a few years it had escalated to cleaning, shopping, laundry and bringing three meals a day as they noticed Fred and Mary were not cooking meals for themselves. The few times had tried cooking there were signs that it didn’t go well such as burned potholders on the stove, ovens left on all day and half eaten food on dirty plates in the sink…We met with the daughter in law who was exhausted from the stress of being a family caregiver. She didn’t know what to do but knew something needed to change and quickly. We talked about what Fred and Mary might need, what they would want in an ideal retirement living situation, where they would want to live and how much they could afford to pay. We decided the best option would be to live in an independent living community that had assisted living too. This would give them a place to move when their care needs became greater. We talked about options in the town in which they lived toured the ones that were of interest. We found the perfect room in a building in Beaverton in which many of their friends also lived.

Planning Ahead for Alzheimer’s Care

Mr. and Mrs. C live in their own home in a large neighborhood in Beaverton, Oregon. They love their home and don’t wish to move. They were referred to us by an in-home care agency who has been helping care for Mrs. C in their home. Mrs. C is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. Mr. C recently had a heart attack scare, and after his recovery, got his family together for a meeting to talk about the future. Mr. C called me to find out what Memory Care communities were out there; in the event that something happens to him, his wife will need to be looked after…

Both Mr. and Mrs. C liked one community in particular. It’s near their son, near walking trails, has a nice courtyard and a nice view, and meets their budget. They also made a second choice as a backup plan in case the first community has no availability. They had another family meeting and told their sons about their decision. When the time comes, the sons know this is their choice, and will contact us to move forward with Mrs. C either moving to Assisted Living or Memory Care, depending on the nurse’s assessment.

zeth@greatnessdigital.com November 17, 2014