What to Do to Determine if Elderly Family Members Can Live Independently
Check in on yourself.
Why How You're Doing Matters Too -- and How to Check in on Yourself
While the decision about whether your elderly family members can or can't live independently is not primarily about you, your own exhaustion can be a good gauge of a decline in their ability to care for themselves. Ask yourself a few simple questions: Is their need for care cutting into your ability to spend time with your own family, interfering with your job, or just plain wearing you out? Are worries about their safety keeping you up at night? Do you find their needs increasingly overwhelming and fear that you may become less and less able to help them meet those needs as time goes by? "Yes" answers to these questions may signal that it's time to start talking about other options.
