Choosing how to help an aging loved one is never easy. Most of us know that we would rather avoid dedicated care facilities for as long as possible, but there are still a range of options to consider. Chief amongst them is assisted living, an increasingly popular option that currently houses around 818,000 residents across the US and counting.
But what does assisted living actually offer? And is this really the right option for everyone? As with any care solution, asking questions is the best way to decide whether or not assisted living is a viable option for your loved one. Keep reading as we answer the top questions you’ll want to consider.
# 1 – What’s Unique About Assisted Living?
Assisted living refers to independent living communities where residents have easy access to on-site care. Unlike care homes, however, assisted living facilities place a strong emphasis on independence. Your loved one will continue living in their own space, while still receiving care and daily help with tasks they find challenging.
# 2 – What’s Good About Assisted Living?
Assisted living boasts a range of benefits, including personalized 24/7 care outside of a hospital or care home environment. This can be great for a loved one who is reluctant to relinquish their privacy and home comforts. Yet, families needn’t worry, because assisted living facilities oversee everything from medication management to socialization priorities like group outings and communal meal times.
# 3 – Are There Downsides to Assisted Living?
No care choice is right for everyone, and assisted living is no exception. While this is an option for individuals with high-care needs, it’s especially worth noting that many facilities aren’t equipped to deal with specialist conditions like advanced Alzheimer’s. As is often the case, care also varies greatly across providers, with some facilities facing serious allegations like negligence or outright abuse at the hands of an assisted living abuse lawyer, while others simply fail to respond to patient needs. Other potential downsides for assisted living solutions include high costs (around $4,500 per month) and limited insurance coverage.
# 4 – Is Assisted Living Right For Your Loved One?
Ultimately, everything we’ve discussed so far comes down to this – is assisted living right for your loved one or not? In other words, will they be happy in a facility like this?
Unfortunately, we can’t give one sure answer, but most experts recommend considering factors like your loved one’s medical needs and preferences before making a decision. After all, if they still want to live independently and are largely able to do so with assistance, then there’s no reason they won’t get along in a well-chosen assisted living facility. However, if they’re increasingly reliant on specialist care, or are becoming prone to health risks like falls and forgetfulness, then you might be better off considering other options.
You’re bound to have a lot of questions when it comes to choosing the next steps for your loved one. Hopefully, we’ve helped to answer some of them here.
Protecting your teeth obviously takes a lot of care and attention. As well as making sure that your brushing and flossing routine is good, you also need to go for regular dental checkups in case you need any professional treatments. But prevention is always going to be far better than the cure. And one of the best forms of prevention is to watch what you are eating and drinking. There are all sorts of damaging food and beverage substances out there which are best avoided. Not sure what they are? Here are just a few of them to watch out for.
Ice
Okay, it’s not really a food substance, but if you are the kind of person who likes to chew on the ice which you empty out from your drink, this is a habit which is worth breaking as soon as possible. Bite on it in the wrong way and you could end up with a chipped tooth or damage to your enamel. If you do encounter an issue, you may have to seek professional help. Ultimately, you are better off finding something softer to sink your teeth into!
Citrus
Though fruit is good for other areas of your body, acidic foods can end up eroding your enamel. And the main culprit tends to be fruit juice, which can end up being as damaging to your teeth as soda. This is not to say that you have to stop drinking fruit juice altogether, but you should limit your intake.
Sticky Food
Though it is quite a broad category, all kinds of sticky snacks can have a lasting bad impact on your teeth. This is because they tend to stay on your pearly whites for longer, and the damage ends up being extended. Items like dried fruit and trail mix are a couple of the main culprits. So if you are going to eat anything like this, you should remember to rinse your mouth out with water to get rid of the remnants. You may need to have everything coloured back to normal with OMNICHROMA flow composite material. To be doubly sure that everything is gone, you should brush and floss carefully.
Crunchy Food
Just like the sticky foods that we have just discussed, crunchy foods such as potato chips tend to hang around your teeth. Since they split into so many small particles, it can be very difficult to know when they have all gone. Take extra care when you are flossing to make sure that you have removed all of them.
Alcohol
You will already be well aware of how damaging soda can be to your teeth, but alcohol is also a substance that you will want to avoid as much as possible. This is because it can lead to dehydration and a dry mouth. In turn, this can cause tooth decay and other oral infections like gum disease.
So, these are just a few of the main food and drink items which you will want to watch out for to keep your teeth healthy.
Home care should not be considered an easy option compared to institutional care. In fact, for most elderly people, it is the better option. Research evidence shows that older people recover better and manage their long-term conditions more effectively at home than in an institutional care setting.
Hospital Environments Carry Real Risks For Older Patients
When you consider that up to a third of elderly patients leaving a hospital will never fully recover their pre-admission functioning, it’s easier to see why seniors have good reasons to avoid going there in the first place. Recovery from major surgery or a severe flare-up of a chronic condition doesn’t end once the underlying issue has been treated. It’s a long road of physical therapy, coaching on how to work around new physical limitations, and helping to adapt the home environment to optimize mobility and independence for as long as possible. Hospitals can’t provide that. They’re designed to stabilize patients, not teach them how to thrive once they leave.
What the Readmission Data Actually Tells us
Readmission to the hospital is widely considered one of the major benchmarks for the effectiveness of any care pathway after acute events. Patients who were part of the H@H (Hospital at Home) program had a 70% reduced risk of being readmitted over the first 30 days. Similar to the broader outcomes application, superior home care with oversight delivers a fairly radical reduction in the stickiest of care failure points.
80% of all the penalties applied by Medicare to hospitals every year is because of preventable readmission. The 70% result in a 30-day readmit stands out as a radical improvement. Most marketing-to-chatbots style health tech can only really hope for an improvement of 15-25%. This one dwarfs that by two or three times. The reason H@H works so well is basically this, it defeats the fractured responsibility and communication curse connected with handing a sick aging loved one between acute care and outpatient and back.
The Home Environment as a Clinical Tool
During a home visit, a clinician may observe where medicine is stored, or find that it’s not stored at all because the patient is skipping doses to save money. They may observe how wheelchair-bound a patient becomes after walking through a grocery store for an hour with an improperly fitted prosthetic. Professional home care services offer alternative ways of measuring health conditions, and they can tell an astute clinician far more about a patient’s status than the medical record alone.
Mental Health Outcomes Aren’t Separate From Physical Ones
Isolation because of living arrangements causes a lot of invisible suffering among the elderly. Being separated from their community accelerates physical decline. Seniors with social support exercise more, eat better, maintain their hearing and vision, stay more mentally engaged, and even heal faster from injuries. They are more likely to report that their health is good, even when controlling for differences in actual health. The people in Blue Zones regions are healthier because they are less isolated.
A good in-home care model keeps the senior better connected to their home community, which is typically a big advantage over institutional care.
The best in-home care providers don’t just send a clinician to your house for an hour every couple of weeks. They use technology to always provide a route for the family and broader clinical team to monitor the plan, and they sit between the doctors and the family to create a clinical vision that they then enforce. They create and reinforce the plan in consultation with a doctor, giving just as much oversight as in an institutional setting.
Spring is here, and that means it’s time to refresh your home with a good deep spring cleaning! This is one of my favorite times of year to “spring clean.” I could have been a professional organizer in another lifetime, I LOVE it that much! But before you reach for conventional cleaning products filled with harsh chemicals, synthetic fragrances, and plastic packaging for your spring cleaning projects, consider a more sustainable approach.
A green spring cleaning routine is not only better for the planet but also healthier for your home and family. In this guide, we’ll cover eco-friendly cleaning products, zero-waste alternatives, and simple decluttering tips to help you welcome spring the sustainable way!
🌿 Step 1: Switch to Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products
Many traditional cleaning supplies contain toxic ingredients that pollute indoor air and waterways. Swap them out for natural, biodegradable alternatives that clean effectively without harming your health or the environment.
🧼 Best Non-Toxic Cleaning Brands
✔️ Blueland Cleaning Essentials Kit – We use ALL things Blueland in our home! This plastic-free cleaning system comes with reusable glass bottles and tablet-based refills for everything from all-purpose spray to dish soap. Just add water and clean without waste!
✔️ Branch Basics Concentrate – A plant-based, fragrance-free cleaner that replaces nearly every cleaning product in your home—just dilute it to create a non-toxic spray for surfaces, glass, and even laundry!
✔️ Ecover Zero Dish Soap – A fragrance-free, plant-based dish soap that cuts grease without polluting waterways. It comes in a 100% recycled plastic bottle too!
✔️ Meliora Gentle Home Cleaning Scrub – This plastic-free, non-toxic scrub is perfect for deep cleaning sinks, bathtubs, and countertops without harsh chemicals.
✔️ Puracy Natural Laundry Detergent – A biodegradable, non-toxic detergent that’s safe for sensitive skin and free from synthetic fragrances and dyes.
🌱 DIY Natural Cleaning Recipes
Want to make your own cleaning products? Try these simple DIY formulas:
All-Purpose Cleaner: Mix equal parts white vinegar and water, add a few drops of lemon essential oil. (Avoid vinegar on granite or marble!)
Glass Cleaner: Combine 2 cups of water, ¼ cup of white vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a spray bottle. Shake well before use!
Toilet Bowl Cleaner: Sprinkle baking soda into the toilet, add vinegar, let it fizz, then scrub and flush!
📦 Step 2: Declutter Sustainably
Spring cleaning isn’t just about wiping down surfaces—it’s also a great time to declutter your home and let go of what no longer serves you. But instead of tossing everything in the trash, try these eco-friendly decluttering tips.
♻️ Sustainable Decluttering Strategies
✔️ Donate Gently Used Items – Give clothing, books, and household items a second life by donating to local shelters, thrift stores, or charities like Goodwill, The Salvation Army, or Dress for Success.
✔️ Sell Unwanted Items Online – Apps like Poshmark, Facebook Marketplace, and ThredUp make it easy to resell clothing, furniture, and home goods.
✔️ Repurpose & Upcycle – Before throwing something away, consider if it can be reused, repainted, or repurposed into something new!
✔️ Recycle Electronics Properly – Don’t toss old electronics in the trash! Take them to a local e-waste recycling center or retailers like Best Buy and Staples, which offer free electronic recycling programs.
✔️ Organize Sustainably – Use bamboo storage bins, glass jars, and fabric baskets instead of plastic containers.
🧺 Best Eco-Friendly Storage & Organization Products
Spring cleaning isn’t just about what you see—it’s also about the air you breathe! Many home products release VOCs (volatile organic compounds), contributing to indoor pollution. Try these natural ways to freshen up your home:
✔️ Swap Synthetic Air Fresheners for Essential Oils – Instead of artificial sprays, diffuse lavender, citrus, or eucalyptus essential oils for a clean, natural scent.
✔️ Use Beeswax Candles Instead of Paraffin – Bee Organic Beeswax Candles purify the air while adding a warm glow to your space.
✔️ Invest in Houseplants – Plants like peace lilies, spider plants, and snake plants naturally filter indoor air.
✔️ Open the Windows! – The easiest (and cheapest) way to let in fresh air and reduce toxins in your home.
🌸 Make Spring Cleaning a Green Tradition!
Spring cleaning is the perfect opportunity to refresh your home, minimize waste, and adopt healthier, more sustainable habits. By swapping out toxic products for eco-friendly cleaning solutions, decluttering responsibly, and improving indoor air quality, you can create a cleaner, greener space for your family.
🌿 What are your favorite eco-friendly cleaning hacks? Drop your go-to green cleaning tips in the comments below!
Climate change isn’t just impacting polar bears and weather patterns. It’s creeping into therapists’ offices, restless nights, and an overwhelming sense of anxiety many people feel when looking towards the future. The link between climate patterns and mental health is undeniable and is exacerbated by excessive natural disasters and oppressive climate change news stories permeating the headlines.
Perhaps one of the more challenging components of climate change on mental health is its insidious impact. Some face trauma from natural disasters, floods, fires and hurricanes. Others bear a less acute but lingering concern about the world’s future in ten or twenty years. Both are completely normal reactions to an incredibly abnormal and scary situation.
How Much Is Too Much Information?
Climate change-related mental health concerns are driven by too much information. Social media posts about destruction, documentaries on melting ice caps, public service announcements about carbon footprints create a continued sense of unfavorable information. Yet the human condition wasn’t created to constantly digest information about happenings halfway across the world.
People feel as though climate change is too big of a problem. Even those who do their best to cut back on pollution still feel as though their efforts aren’t enough. The gap between good intentions and what’s needed to move the dial leaves many feeling helpless. Yet helplessness serves as a known precursor to anxiety and depression.
And here’s where it gets complicated: concern for the environment is a fantastic quality to possess; however, when people become so worried about the world around them that they cannot function it’s a problem. People avoid scheduling events for the future, feel guilty when enjoying life too much, or panic when considering procreating in an uncertain world.
Therapists in Denver who specialize in women’s anxiety and self-worth are particularly seeing how environmental concerns compound existing confidence issues. When women already struggle with self-doubt, adding climate guilt and helplessness can significantly impact their sense of personal agency and worth.
When Climate Change Impacts Something More Than Your Calendar
People most impacted by climate-related circumstances experience immediate challenges that impact their mental well-being, too. PTSD, anxiety, and depression are common where massive storms, flooding, fires occur – once the destruction is done. However, continued stress about clean up, insurance claims, and potential recurrence urges people’s mental health to continue to decline long after repairs are made.
This makes sense inside the disaster zones. However, people who are otherwise stabilized report rising levels of anxiety amidst hurricane season, wildfire season, unexpected rains, and excessive coverage about “normal” climate change beyond their control.
Heat waves, in particular, increase domestic violence, psychiatric emergency room visits and aggression. The higher the heat, the more aggressive people feel. Therefore, while discomfort is an unrealistic expectation in the name of climate change (since we shouldn’t be comfortable), it’s reflective of how our moods shift with temperature. And as temperatures continue to rise – in more ways than one – they affect everyone.
When Guilt Keeps People Stuck
Even guilt is a mental health issue surrounding climate change. Guilt that comes from driving to work, purchasing prepackaged food items or taking vacations boomerangs back to mental health concerns. Unfortunately, guilt perpetuates paralysis or perfectionism – but doesn’t support sustainable change.
But guilt doesn’t help anyone change for the better. Instead, it causes people to feel bad about feeling bad; try to do all that can be done for the environment; realize perfection isn’t possible; continue to feel bad for what’s been messed up. This cycle is compounded by social media where people compare their environmental failures compared to others’ environmental successes.
The world can support less consuming news consumption or constant comparison; however, it can’t quell realities out of people’s hands for giant negative news stories making people more stressed about life than general expectations would allow for.
Finding A Healthy Middle Ground Without Losing Sight
The goal is not to stop caring about climate concerns – this isn’t feasible or helpful – but rather to limit how much care can induce overwhelming anxiety that undermines mental health and world efforts.
Setting boundaries for consuming climate change-related information reduces how much negative health trends transform people’s minds about the situation. This isn’t to say to not pay attention; instead, limit when and how climate-related news is absorbed (and from what sources) so people don’t focus on it 24/7.
Taking action where possible – even minimal action – helps more than people realize. Studies show those who employ climate conscientious behavior have better mental health than those who only worry without acting upon that worry. The caveat? Only take suggestions that one can realistically accomplish so actions aren’t out of reach.
Community engagement provides caring relationships and environmental benefits. Making plans with others in need of sustainability efforts helps combat isolation that’s all too common among stressed persons with climate change concerns. Collective action provides subjugation against justified frictional thought patterns telling us it won’t make a difference.
Building Resilience For An Uncertain Future
Coping skills for climate anxiety work similarly to other anxieties. Working towards what can be controlled instead of global catastrophes empowers people who have felt hopeless due to such psychological waste.
Focusing on the household level or homegrown advocacy or charitable support helps realize big decisions don’t mean one needs to personally solve the matter themselves.
Furthermore, building present-minded awareness counters climate worries that derail people’s minds from ten years down the road into worst-case scenarios. While planning ahead is good for catastrophes that can be avoided (packing an emergency bag), spending time really worrying about what life will be like then creates distress without helping what’s going on today.
Professionals help those most impacted by how climate change concerns infiltrate daily life. Those with climate-change-based anxiety respond well to therapy approaches from other anxiety problems – with simultaneous benefits since they directly address what’s been creating anxiety responses since inception.
Climate change creates legitimate concern that deserves careful thought and implementation; however, allowing environmental fears to undermine psychological well-being doesn’t help anyone – or communities – or the world at large. Learning how to care while supporting one’s mental health fosters opportunities for long-term care.
