What to Do to Determine if Elderly Family Members Can Live Independently
Observe their ability to perform the five basic activities of daily living.
How to Find out Whether Seniors Can Still Manage the Five Activities of Daily Living
"Activities of daily living" are the tasks performed in the course of a normal day, including getting around (moving from the bed to a chair, for example), dressing, bathing, eating, and toileting. Eldercare professionals use these five activities as a gauge of seniors' basic capacity to care for themselves and of how much extra support they may need. You can use them yourself as a guide in making your own assessment.
As much as you can without invading their privacy, watch your elderly family members perform each of the activities of daily living, keeping an eye out for where they may be having trouble on their own. Where privacy concerns prevent you from observing, find a quiet moment to ask whether, for example, they might need a grab bar next to the toilet, an elevated toilet seat, or renovations that would make bathing safer and easier.
If one or more of the activities of daily living are becoming more difficult, the next thing to do is look into whether and where you can get help. The local Area Agency on Aging is a good place to start investigating what supports are available locally. You'll want to know about things such as meal delivery, visiting services, in-home care services, and adult day services. Ask your loved ones if they know how to access any of these services, and find out whether they already are accessing any. Talk to them about any concerns they may have -- worries about maintaining their privacy with a stranger in their home, for example -- and assure them that you'll work with any agency or individual you may hire to help address those concerns. Let them know also that they have the right to interview and choose their own in-home caregivers, and to hire a new one if things don't work out with the first one. As with driving, this is an area that most people want to control themselves, so you'll want to approach it with care and respect.
