There are thousands, if not millions, of options available every holiday shopping season. The sheer number of great gift ideas is overwhelming. You know you need to get something that can make life easier for your senior, but you don’t know what to get them. Here are four thoughtful gift ideas focused on safety, independence, and family.

Amazon Echo

Smart Homes made a significant impact in 2021. Smart homes have been around for years, but now that most Americans have smartphones, you can control everything in your home from your pocket. Coupled with smartphones, the Amazon Echo is an excellent tool for monitoring and maintaining your home.

Seniors can use the Echo for assistance, including:

• Playing music
• Searching the internet
• Ordering goods on Amazon
• Controlling lights, thermostat, windows, and security systems

The Amazon Echo is a wonderful gift for your senior to have independence with a nearby assistant.

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Non-Slip Socks

Every hour, seven seniors die by falling. Coordination and health typically decline once a person reaches 65 years of age. Non-slip socks are great gifts for seniors. Bombas makes excellent gripped socks to keep your family members on their feet instead of their backside. From their high-quality material to unique design, Bombas are committed to keeping you on your feet.

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Digital Photo Frame

As more and more people use their phones to take pictures, printed photo books are no longer as popular as they once were. However, finding photos on your phone and learning new technology is tedious and challenging. A digital photo frame like View Clix is a great tool to share precious memories with your loved ones.

With View Clix, you can send images, keep a scrolling photo album, and video chat. It is made specifically for seniors, so the tool is simple to use and always on. View Clix is compatible with virtually all devices, so it doesn’t matter if you have Apple or Android. This digital photo frame and video chat service is the perfect way to keep your family together and share sweet moments with future generations.

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DIY Meal Delivery

One of the best things about 2021 is the simplification of cooking. Over the last several years, more and more meal delivery services have been popping up and making dinner time simpler for families across America. Everything about this process is easy. Regardless of which service you use, you order your meals online and the business sends your uncooked food in a safe box outfitted to keep your food cold. Once you receive your food, you have everything you need to make an easy breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each shipment comes with a recipe card and all of your necessary ingredients. Services like HelloFresh and Home Chef keep seniors from running hours of errands at the grocery store and from having to carry the groceries into the house.

Conclusion

When you buy an Amazon Echo, Bombas socks, a digital photo album like View Clix, and a medical alert system, you are purchasing the very things your older loved ones need to stay safe. These gifts are as every much thoughtful as they are helpful and preventative. Buy safety and care this holiday season for your elderly family member.

Winter is one of the most challenging times of year for everyone. While it’s a great opportunity to travel and see family for the holidays, the changes in weather create unsafe conditions for everyone. Seniors suffer the most in the winter because of the cold and isolation.

Pivotal Health Care’s senior living communities directly meet these concerns with a full staff of trained caregivers. If you have been going back and forth on moving into senior living, you will regret not doing it sooner by the time winter rolls around. Given the colder temperatures and hazardous conditions, a senior living community can help you stay warm, safe, and provide companionship.

Reason #1: Staying Warm is Essential

Our bodies are fantastic at managing internal temperature and finding ways to keep us warm. We sweat in the summers to lower our body temperature. We shiver in the cold to raise our body temperature.

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Nonetheless, if your body needs to constantly regulate temperature due to external conditions, you are overexerting your body. After a few weeks, your body will be tired and vulnerable to sickness and disease. 

In a senior living community, you are surrounded by friends and caregivers who will make sure your room and home are warm and that all your heating needs are met.

Reason #2: Staying Safe in Hazardous Weather

During the winter, we get rain, snow, hail, and ice. It can be incredibly dangerous to venture out into the elements on your own. Driving becomes much tougher when there is black ice or freezing rain.

If you are living on your own or with your partner in the winter months, you have an increased chance of injury or death. Even though Kansas and Missouri don’t get the most snow in the country, we receive enough to warrant regular shoveling. When older adults shovel snow on their own, they increase the risk of injury. 

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Reason #3: Senior Living Provides Companionship

The winter months are synonymous with holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, New Year’s, and Valentine’s Day. Families love to gather together for any and all holidays. Unfortunately, while we might gather together for a day or two on the occasion, many seniors are left home alone outside of holiday trips.

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When you combine shorter days with loneliness, it’s no surprise that seniors struggle with depression. In a senior living community, your loved one can enjoy the holidays with family without worrying about what happens when everyone leaves. Once their family leaves, they still have their friends in the community and caregivers who are there to meet their needs and share stories. Senior living provides the necessary companionship for a healthy aging process.

Conclusion

The winter months bring great beauty and festivities, but they also leave seniors in precarious positions. If you move into a senior living community in the winter, you are guaranteed to be warm, safe, and have companionship. 

At Pivotal Health Care, we want to help you live your best life. With our senior living communities, you can experience and enjoy your senior years as much as possible. Contact us today to set up a free visit and meeting.

Over thousands of years, humans have shown that we prefer structure and routine over impulsivity and “c’est la vie” attitudes. We like the familiar over experiencing something new.

This attitude is especially true when we consider moving, even more so when someone decides to move to senior living.

Moving can be a difficult decision for many families because there are many things to consider.

Thankfully, with communities through Pivotal Health Care, moving sooner rather than later is smoother and more manageable than expected.

But it all starts with you. You need to do it sooner than later!

Why?

Moving When You Are Healthy Makes for an Easier Transition Period

Moving can be an incredibly stressful experience. It is even harder to do when you are not healthy and feeling well.

Making the transition to an independent living community when you are in good health helps ease this difficult transition by simply minimizing your stress.

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According to the CDC, between 2014-2017, the emergency department (ED) visit rate for persons aged 60 doubles by the time the person reaches 90 and over.

In other words, as you get older, your health declines rapidly, and you need healthcare services.

Don’t wait to be in critical health for you to decide to move.

Take Advantage of Opportunities Available in the Community

Unfortunately, as a person ages, some things become more challenging to do than others. For some seniors, a simple walk is no longer possible without assistive aid.

Senior living communities have so much to offer seniors both recreationally and socially. The younger you move in, the more you can take advantage of these opportunities. Participating in activities has been proven to boost your mood and health.

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All PHC facilities have an activity director who organizes events and gatherings for residents.

There Is Minimal Home Maintenance

Home maintenance can be a hassle. You don’t have to worry about the minutiae involved with taking care of a home when you live in a senior living community.

Senior living communities provide services to minimize the stress and frustration that can come with home maintenance. From regular lawn maintenance to safety and security, you are taken care of at all times.

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This way, you can enjoy independent living without all the responsibility sooner rather than later.

A Senior Living Community Cost Less Than a Nursing Home

Finances are always something to be considered. Saving money allows for more fun and enjoyment like trips, accessories, and fun outings!

Paying for a nursing home can cost over $100,000 per year. A senior living community costs less than half of that per year, which means you can spend more time and money doing the things you love.

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Conclusion

Moving out of a home is hard. It’s even harder when you think you are going to some strange place.

Thankfully, senior communities are homes. And they can be your home.

The worst thing to do is wait until it is too late to move into senior living.

Everyone who has walked through the doors of a PHC community wishes they came sooner.

So why wait? Live life to the fullest. Learn more and book your tour now!

As you get older and start looking at your next transition in life, a senior living community is an excellent option! However, as exciting as it may be for some, there are others who get nervous about big transitions and new experiences. Introverts struggle with moving to a new place and dealing with the anxiety of meeting new people all at once.

 

While introverts are quieter, more reserved individuals who typically don’t do well in large crowds, a senior living community is a great option for 5 main reasons!

 

Reason 1: Introverts Will Own Their Home

One of the biggest concerns for introverts moving to a new place is whether or not they will have their own space. Introverts want to have a space that is solely theirs for privacy and comfort purposes. In a PHC community, seniors can have their own homes. These homes will provide introverts with the independence they crave. 

 

Reason 2: Senior Living Communities Provide Quiet Environments for Introverts

Not only will introverts have their own spaces to rest and recharge, but we create a quiet environment. These serene locations are away from the busy life of a city and provide residents with a peaceful community.

 

Reason 3: The Community Will Become the Introvert’s Family

A great benefit to these communities are the experienced employees who know how to help seniors in every way imaginable. Because they are specially trained and experienced, there is a level of trust and companionship created within the community. Introverts need people they can trust and having a strong, stable community like this is the first step to building a family at our community.

 

Reason 4: Introverts Won’t Be Depressed in a Senior Living Community

Depression is one of the biggest risk factors for seniors. What initially starts as boredom for some seniors turns into depression.

Staying active and busy is a great way to help prevent certain types of depression. A senior living community has a ton of activities available tailored to seniors to help them enjoy their lives. Introverts can take advantage of these opportunities and prevent the risk of boredom and depression.

 

Reason 5: Introverts Can Live at Their Own Pace

Introverts can easily stress out about moving into a new place so being given the time to acclimate is important. In a senior living community, nobody is rushing you to do things or pressuring you to participate. You have the autonomy to acclimate at your own pace since you live in your own space.

 

Senior Living Communities Are a Great Place for Introverts

Senior living communities are great options for everyone because they provide excellent health services and provide seniors with opportunities to live an active and healthy life.

 

Although introverts might be a little tentative at the start, these communities are excellent places for them because it helps maintain their preferred level of socialization while being able to enjoy their alone time in their own homes.

The pandemic has temporarily changed how generations of families interact with one another. Here are a few fun ways to spend time with loved ones, while observing social distancing guidelines.

Set a routine.

Try to block off a regular check-in time every week or every few days to say hello and discuss life events. If your grandparent is not particularly tech-savvy, this can be a regular phone call, or if they are, a Zoom or FaceTime chat.

 

Mail letters.

Not all seniors are savvy when it comes to digital communications like Facetime and Zoom. Not only are letters more familiar for some, but they also give younger generations a chance to flex their writing and creativity skills. Drawings, handmade cards, and childrens’ arts and crafts projects are a wonderful thing to include if you have children who might be too small to write a letter. And if you have young children, sending and receiving mail is a fun novelty for a generation that has grown up on the internet.

 

Make a care package.

In addition to mailing letters and cards, put together a package of fun activities for grandparents. Puzzle books, crossword puzzles, card games, or books are a good start. Set up an exchange. One week you mail them a package; the next week, they send something back. And while everyone is encouraged to avoid unnecessary trips to the store, this might be an excellent time to utilize online deliveries or get creative. Putting together an album of old photos or recipe collections is a fun activity to get children involved while everyone is at home. It costs virtually nothing and has a more profound sentimental value for your loved ones.

 

It’s a date.

Set aside a time to watch a television show or movie simultaneously. This way, you will have something to talk about the next time you check-in. Perhaps start a virtual family book club if you have avid readers at home.

 

Virtual Activities

Do your grandparents have a unique skill or hobby they could teach grandchildren over a video call? Maybe your children want to give their grandparents a show-and-tell or talent show over Facetime? Some numerous hobbies and activities can be done virtually with grandparents, from teaching a hobby or skill to finishing homework or sharing a meal.

 

For many of us, our ideas about senior living are significantly outdated. Perhaps your last experience with it was visiting a relative decades ago, in a hospital-like facility that felt drab and boring. Many people believe senior living is a term interchangeable with a nursing home, that they are only for the ill and elderly who can no longer take care of themselves. However, nothing could be farther from the truth when talking about today’s modern senior communities. Residents of these communities report being overwhelmingly happy. A survey from the Assisted Living Federation of America reports that ninety-four percent of respondents say that they were satisfied with the overall quality of their community. And ninety-three percent were pleased with the level of independence gained from living in their community.

Here are a few myths about senior living that you should ignore:

1. Senior living is for the sick and elderly

Senior living communities are often grouped in with nursing homes when it comes to people’s perceptions. Nursing homes provide medical care to the elderly or seniors who are in poor health. Senior living communities are designed for active older adults. They want to spend their retirement years unburdened by home upkeep but want assistance with daily activities they might not feel comfortable completing on their own. Not only do senior living communities offer more flexibility and convenience for aging seniors, but they also allow residents to stay in control of their choices. Often, waiting for an illness or health crisis occurs to move rushes the process and might leave seniors with limited options. Most independent living communities do offer higher levels of care when the need arises, such as assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and rehab programs that residents can take advantage of without the stress of having to move.

2. Loss of Independence

Often, the choice to live independently is mistaken for living on their own. Modern senior living facilities pride themselves on making residents feel as independent as possible. With limited care provided, seniors can feel at home and spend their days on their schedule. Residents aren’t limited to where they can go or what they can do. Most communities offer outings, activities, socializing, fitness, art classes, and flexible dining options. Participation in these activities is optional, and for those who’d prefer to spend their retirement years traveling or visiting loved ones, they can enjoy knowing their residence is being looked after while they are away. No longer burdened by home maintenance, lawn care, housekeeping or cooking, residents often find they have more time for activities and hobbies, or for spending time with loved ones. Many communities provide some type of transportation if a resident is no longer comfortable driving or keeping up with car maintenance. Some properties even offer parking and garage space for residents who do enjoy the independence of driving themselves.

3. Lack of socialization and activities

The activities offered to residents vary by community. Still, they all offer a variety of enrichment programs and wellness programs—activities such as yoga, crafting classes, sports, board games, and more. There is no limit to the opportunities for seniors to enjoy a favorite pastime, or take up a new hobby. Residents can meet new friends who share the same interests. Activities and social events are optional, with limited set schedules. Most seniors find they have more time to enjoy their favorite pastimes in a senior living community, as they are no longer spending time with home upkeep and household chores.

4. No privacy or personalization

Today’s senior living communities often resemble a resort or luxury condo. Many offer breathtaking views of cities or nature. Communities vary in size and style; some offer apartments or townhomes; others are small houses. Most offer many different floor plan options. Units can have single or double rooms, with various accommodations and amenities, such as kitchenettes and laundry. Seniors are free to furnish and decorate their space with their items. While downsizing a home can be an exhausting task, today’s senior living communities can accommodate almost all of the comforts of home without sacrificing taste or style in the process. Additionally, seniors have control over many of the security features offered in these communities, giving them a sense of privacy and security.

5. Seniors would prefer to move in with family

Seventy-three percent of families report that a senior loved one’s quality of life improved after moving to assisted living, according to research from A Place for Mom. Many seniors fear becoming a burden to family and loved ones as they age. While caregiving often strengthens relationships, it can also affect the caregiver’s ability to work, maintain relationships and health. According to the CDC, caregivers often neglect their own needs and suffer from the physical and emotional demands of caregiving. Choosing a senior living community could result in a happier and healthier life, not just for senior citizens, but also for their loved ones.

6. Senior living is expensive

The cost of senior living varies depending on the size of residence and level of care. The median monthly fee for assisted living in 2019 was $4,051, according to a Genworth study on the cost of care. While the monthly rates of senior living might surprise and intimidate some families, it is often comparable or even less than remaining in the home and receiving the same services and support.  Everything offered at a senior living community is part of the same monthly rate. Expenses like meals, transportation, activities, assistance with daily tasks, housekeeping, medication management, and medical services are all included. Not to mention the utilities, insurance, taxes, and upkeep expenses that come with homeownership.