If we ask: “What kind of nursing home is best for mum?”, we are guaranteed to go down the path of getting mum into a nursing home!
Maybe a more useful question might be: “How does mum want to live as she grows older?” That might open up a whole new range of possibilities for mum. This is a living better question.
What are the right living better questions for you as we grow older?
When I consider my own aging journey asking the right question is very important. I definitely would not want to end up where the current road is leading me…. In a nursing home without any capacity to influence my own life.
I don’t want a nursing home for my Mum or myself until this is the last resort and then it will be the best/only place to be. In the meantime, I want to live in a local community where I can meet my social, intellectual and physical needs. I want to be connected (physically and/or virtually) with a range of people and be within reach of the services I need. It wouldn’t matter if I was in the general community or an age-specific community, such as a retirement village, the important thing is that I would have easy access to friends, family, entertainment and services and thereby be included in the general current of new things and events in my community.
Thanks for your comment.
I agree that one of the key aspects of ageing well (and indeed of living well) is being connected to family, friends and the local community. Could technology play a role in making it easier for people to remain connected?
Taking your comment a bit further, I suggest that being connected also implies a give and take i.e. sustained relationships usually deliver mutual benefit. I hope that I can keep contributing to my family, friends and community as I grow older. What I need is the ability to offer what I want to 9and am able to), when and where I want. Maybe technology has potential here as well?
Yes, we need to have accessible technology to be connected so our choices of where we live are not so restricted. The ipad seems ideal but not for my mother who still can’t always send emails. As per mobile phones, can we have a nanna ipad or big phone touch screen with only the vital things on the screen? Ironically, to remove some of the geographical restrictions, we may need to restrict the technology choices!