Should I Stay or Should I Go: The Assisted Living Dilemma Assisted living is a salvation of sorts for many seniors, but for others the transition can be quite painful. Assisted living affords your loved ones a freedom of lifestyle and choices with the safety and convenience of constant medical care, social support and functional daily living assistance. Yet, this care often comes with the heavy emotional cost associated with downsizing homes. Many seniors have no interest in leaving the home they spent a lifetime building and prefer to "age in place". When forced out of their residence by financial hardship, health problems or inability to maintain a large property, the move can be met with resistance, anger, depression and grief. Much of the loss is not just about giving …show more content…
Stash your sentimentality. Downsizing is hard enough without clinging emotionally to items in front of your senior loved ones. It is one thing to relive joyous moments, it is another to start clinging to items yourself. Either take the items home proudly or discard them, but save emotional breakdowns or "You can't get rid of that!" for when you are alone. 5. Encourage giving to charity or to organizations. The hardship of parting with items can be moderated by ensuring the items go to someone who needs it more than your loved one does. By giving to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, the church, or even donating historical items to the library or university, the grief of downsizing can be turned into feelings of accomplishment and pride. 6. Ensure photo albums, heirlooms, gifts from grandchildren, and so forth are given a place of honor. When your loved ones see that you esteem and cherish these items and memories as much as they do, letting the other items go becomes easier. 7. Photograph that which you cannot take. The removal of the physical item does not mean the memory has to be gone as well. Digitize the memories and put them on DVDs, flash drives, or simply on a computer or smart