How Often to Visit a Parent in a Nursing Home: A Comprehensive Guide
How Often To Visit Parent In Nursing Home
t’s important for your parent to receive visits from family and friends when in a nursing home. This is helpful to keep their spirits up and maintain community ties. The frequency of visits can play a significant role in ensuring your loved one feels supported and valued. This guide will explore the importance of regular visits, the emotional and practical considerations, and tips for maintaining a strong connection with your parent while in a long-term care setting. Continue reading to decide how often should you visit parent in nursing home.
How often should you drop by?
Well, there’s no one size fits all answer. It depends on factors like your parent’s needs and their schedule*, your availability and the availability of extended family and friends, and the nature of the relationship you have with your parent.
A Note About Your Parent’s Schedule in a Nursing Home
If your parent was recently discharged from a hospital and is at a nursing home for short-term rehabilitation, they will likely have pre-scheduled therapy sessions, sometimes as often as twice per day. This type of schedule, combined with the injury/illness recovery process, can result in your parent needing extra rest over the course of the day. If you know your parent is on a rehab therapy program, it’s a good idea to call ahead to check with the charge nurse about pre-scheduled therapy times before visiting.
If your parent is living in a nursing home for long-term care, their days may not be filled with therapy sessions, but they may be looking forward to participating in a favorite art program or afternoon bingo. Again, it’s always a good idea to check in with your parent or the unit nurse. Ask for a copy of the recreation calendar and make note of what scheduled activities your parent will want to attend, so you can consider their schedule when planning your visits.
The Importance of Regular Visits
Emotional Support and Well-Being
Regular visits by family and friends at the nursing home can greatly boost your parent’s well being. It helps maintain a sense of belonging and continuity with their community while easing any feelings of loneliness or isolation they may have. For older adults adjusting to new living circumstances, knowing that their family is there for them can lift their spirits and make them feel more at ease.
Combating Loneliness
Feelings of loneliness are common from time to time among residents in nursing homes and other senior living communities. Regular visits offer chances for social interactions that can help alleviate these feelings and support the transition from living at home to a new setting.
Spending time with each other, whether through conversation, favorite hobbies or enjoying a “take out” meal together, can truly make an impact on the life of your loved one. Also, be sure to ask your parent’s social worker about different groups and therapeutic activities available at the nursing home. Encourage your loved one to participate in recreation programs that align with prior and current interests. Know that recreation staff and facility social workers will also encourage participation in activities and events that could be enjoyable for your parent.
Strengthening Family Bonds
Regular visits also play a role in strengthening family bonds. They allow family members to stay informed about their parents’ health and well being while also helping to develop connections with staff and caregivers at the nursing home. These visits provide an opportunity to exchange family updates, share the news of the day, and become better acclimated to the new setting.
Practical Aspects to Consider
While the emotional rewards of visits are evident, practical considerations also influence how often you should visit your parent.
Managing Busy Schedules
Juggling work commitments, family obligations, self-care, and other tasks can be challenging. Nonetheless scheduling visits and integrating them into your routine can help strike a balance. Even brief visits can have a positive impact. Finding a schedule that suits everyone is essential.
Remember – you alone are not able to provide all the social and emotional support that your parent may need while in the nursing home. This effort should be shared with extended family, friends, and community members. Don’t forget that your parent will also make meaningful connections with other nursing home residents and caregivers. This could take time so realize your presence may be needed more in the beginning of the transition and less as time goes on.
Health and Mobility Factors
Both the parent and family members’ health and functional levels can impact visit frequency. If physical travel poses challenges, especially in the winter months and times of inclement weather, consider supplementing face to face visits, with phone calls or video chats to maintain communication and support. The nursing home social worker or recreation department staff can help facilitate remote visits.
Factors Influencing Visit Frequency
Your Parent’s Needs and Preferences
Each person has social interaction needs and preferences. If you visited your parent once a week when living at home, and these visits were enjoyable and fit both of your schedules, then visiting once a week at the nursing home may still be the best frequency.
Some parents may prefer frequent visits while others can find it overwhelming. Maintaining communication with your parent and respecting their comfort level is key.
Health Status
Your parent’s health status can impact how often you should visit. Those dealing with a recent illness or hospitalization may benefit from more frequent visits to provide emotional support. These visits are also an opportunity to communicate in person with clinical staff and stay current with your parent’s health status.
Type of Senior Living Communities
The type of senior living community can also play a role in visit frequency. Assisted living facilities typically offer a greater variety of social events and planned activities, potentially lessening the necessity for regular family visits. While nursing homes offer many of the same types of events and activities, the resident is more likely to have greater care needs which may impact their attendance and participation in recreational activities. As a result, they may depend more on regular family visits for social interaction.
Different communities will post preferred visiting hours. Understanding these guidelines, along with knowing where the common spaces (i.e. lounges, library, outdoor gardens) are at the nursing home, will help to maximize the quality time spent with your parent. A facility receptionist or social worker can guide you to additional spaces available for family visits.
Personal Circumstances
Each family member has personal circumstances that influence how often they can visit. Factors like distance, work commitments and other family obligations all play a role. Striking a balance that works for both the family and the parent is essential.
Geographical Distance
If you live far from the nursing home, visiting frequently might be more challenging. In such cases, scheduling longer, more meaningful visits when possible, and maintaining regular phone calls can help bridge the gap. Nursing home staff are available to help facilitate phone calls should your parent need help making or receiving calls.
Tips for Making the Most of Visits
- Planning Activities
- Bringing Personal Touches
- Staying Consistent
- Supplementing Visits With Calls
Planning Activities
Organizing activities that bring joy to your loved one can make visits more memorable and fulfilling. Whether it involves playing a game, watching a favorite TV show, or spending time together outside, these shared experiences can be enjoyable and comforting to you and your parent.
Bringing Personal Touches
Bringing items like family photos, homemade snacks, or a device for listening to favorite music can help create a personalized, home-like environment for your parent while living in the nursing home. These familiar items can bring comfort to your parent during their stay.
Staying Consistent
Consistency plays a role in nurturing the bond. Once a routine is established, your parent will know to look forward to your visit on specific days or at certain times of the day. Keeping a calendar in your parent’s room to indicate days of planned visits may be helpful.
Supplementing Visits with Calls
When face to face visits are not feasible, staying connected through phone calls or video chats is important for sustaining the relationship. These conversations provide reassurance and can help combat feelings of isolation.
In Conclusion
There isn’t a one size fits all answer to how often you should visit your parent in a nursing home but making the time for regular visits will have a positive impact.
By putting a visitation plan together that considers both your parent’s needs and your particular circumstances, you can help ensure that your loved one feels cared for and supported in their new living community.
FAQs
The frequency of visits depends on your parent’s needs and wishes, the type of living facility and your own circumstances. Regular visits even if short can help maintain well being.
Certainly! Frequent visits can boost your parents well being by reducing loneliness and feelings of isolation.
If you live far away, consider planning less frequent visits while staying connected through phone calls or video chats regularly.
Engage in activities that bring joy to your parent. Bring along mementos from home and stick to a visitation schedule.
When face to face meetings may not be possible, keeping in touch via phone calls is also effective in providing support and staying connected with your parent.
It’s important to respect your parents wishes and communicate to find a scenario that benefits both of you. If you are unclear about why your parent wants fewer visits, ask to speak with the social worker. Sometimes fewer but meaningful visits can be more valuable.
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