Colorado Springs Senior AdvisorWhat are the signs a parent in Colorado Springs can no longer live alone?
Falls or near-falls, missed or doubled medications, weight loss and spoiled food, unpaid bills, getting lost while driving, unexplained car damage, a home that has slipped from its usual standard, and withdrawal from friends or church.
Look in person, not by phone; people are skilled at sounding fine for ten minutes. Open the mail and the refrigerator, check the medication bottles against the labels, and drive with them. In Teller County and the rural parts of El Paso County, add the questions winter raises: can they get out if the road is not plowed, and who would notice if they could not?
What help can keep a parent at home longer around Colorado Springs?
Medication management, a few hours of home care a week, adult day care, meals, a medical alert device, home modifications such as grab bars, and, for those who qualify, PACE or the EBD waiver through The Resource Exchange.
The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging, (719) 471-2096, connects families with Older Americans Act services such as meals, transportation and caregiver support, and its Yellow Book lists hundreds of local services. Rocky Mountain PACE serves most of El Paso County and can coordinate everything for frail seniors who meet nursing facility level of care.
When is assisted living the safer choice?
When needs come at unpredictable hours, such as nighttime confusion or falls, when the cost of enough home care passes the cost of assisted living, or when isolation is causing decline; at Colorado's $42 hourly home care median, the crossover is around 36 hours of help a week.
Start touring before an emergency forces the decision. A move chosen in spring is usually easier than one made from a hospital bed in January.
How do we raise the subject with a parent who wants to stay home?
Talk about specific worries rather than a move, involve their doctor, offer a trial of help at home first, and frame any move as their decision about how to spend their money and time.
Many parents accept help that is presented as making life easier for the family. A respite stay in assisted living can be a low-risk way to try it.
Side by side
| Staying home can work with | Staying home is hard when | |
|---|---|---|
| Help | Scheduled home care, meals and medication support | Needs come at all hours, unpredictably |
| Safety | A medical alert device and home changes | Falls repeat or wandering begins |
| Company | Adult day care, church, neighbors | Weeks pass without a visitor |
| Money | Hours of care that fit the budget | Care costs pass assisted living's |
Drawn from 6 CCR 1011-1 Chapter 7, CDPHE and HCPF publications, CareScout, CMS, the VA and the Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging; our editorial standards explain how we check them.
