When you pick a care home for your loved one, you’re likely most concerned with the facilities they have and the qualifications of the staff. You want to ensure that they’re going somewhere that’s going to be fully capable of taking care of them, and everything around that might feel like much less of a consideration.
However, the location – the area that the care home finds itself in – might be more important to the person who’s actually going to live there. That alone might make it worth thinking about again, but it’s also important to understand how this decision-making process affects you.
Proximity
The most obvious way that it will is through proximity. You likely want to be able to visit your loved one regularly – and they will want to know that it’s easy for you to do so – meaning that your scope might become limited.
It’s important to get a good idea of how often you would realistically visit them in the first place. If it’s going to be every week, then making sure that the residential home is within a short distance of where you live might be important. However, if that frequency drops to once a month, you might find that a longer journey to see them is a small price to pay for their comfort in a place they prefer. Keeping in mind their happiness as the top priority can prevent the end result being a compromise that keeps nobody happy.
Facilities
Some care homes are going to be able to offer certain benefits that others aren’t. These might be more about the comfort of the residents – such as certain facilities like gardens that can provide open spaces for them to enjoy, in which case, the home is going to need to be situated somewhere that allows for this kind of space.
In other instances, though, the facilities in question might be more about practicality – staff that is experienced with residents who suffer from dementia, for instance. The idea of location and expertise co-existing doesn’t have to be unreasonable, though. It’s possible to find a quality care home in Bury St Edmunds that is able to meet the needs of your loved one struggling with dementia while situating them in a peaceful rural community.
Natural Landscapes
It’s natural to think about this in terms of convenience – what’s convenient for you and what needs your loved one has as far as care goes. If you live in a city, for example, you might look for a place within this area or just outside of it – but this might mean that the kind of natural landscapes your loved one enjoys are restricted. Exposure to nature and natural landscapes can have a profound impact on mental health, and that’s something that can have a direct link to happiness. This is all part of the discussion that you’ll likely have with your loved one throughout this process – understanding what’s important to them.
