What Causes Isolation?
Senior apartment selection directly affects the risk of senior isolation. Think about each option and its effect on your or your loved one's ability to socialize.
Aging leads to progressive reductions in mobility. Over time, this leaves people unable to get out and do things on their own. They often rely on family members or public transport if driving is unsafe. Reliance on others limits socialization options for seniors living in remote areas.
What Makes Isolation Serious?
When seniors feel isolated, that isolation can breed a host of problems. Sadness and depression often result from this isolation. Feelings of isolation also lead to cognitive struggles, including the development or worsening of dementia symptoms.
Along with the threats to mental health, isolation also poses some physical health threats. For example, isolated seniors are at greater risk of injury and potential death from a fall. Discovery is often delayed for isolated seniors, which can worsen complications.
How Can Senior Apartments Help Fight Isolation?
Creating a multi-generational home helps prevent senior isolation, but living together isn't practical for everyone, which is why many families turn to senior housing solutions.
Most senior housing solutions make it easy for you or your loved one to meet and interact with his or her neighbors. With interconnected apartments, seniors can visit neighbors and build relationships quickly and easily. This provides easy access to socialization opportunities for residents.
Further, most senior living facilities provide events, such as movies, card games, classes, and even fitness sessions. Meals are often served in dining halls. Gathering for meals provides great opportunities for conversations and social interaction. Holiday meals are popular as well.
Outdoor sitting areas, swimming pools, patios, and gardens provide common spaces for gathering and social interactions as well. There's a sense of community in these senior apartment facilities that helps to eliminate the risk of isolation for many seniors.
You will also find that many senior apartment complexes are constructed on public transportation routes so that residents can easily navigate to the store or other local destinations as long as they have some independence. Some complexes even provide transportation services as an amenity to those living within the community.
What are Other Benefits of Senior Apartments?
Most senior apartments offer benefits beyond preventing isolation. Complexes built specifically for aging adults will include the capability for onsite nursing care, including in-home care where needed. This care can adapt for each resident, providing as little or as much support as each one needs along with valuable interactions that minimize isolation.
Many senior apartment complexes cater to those with fixed incomes. That means that rental rates are low, locked in, and often subsidized by the local housing authority. The goal is to ensure that the rent is affordable for those on Social Security or other retirement funds. This is beneficial for aging adults who are struggling to make ends meet. Lower or subsidized rent means that these residents have more disposable income for social gatherings and opportunities.
