There may be a certain level of guilt you feel at this moment, having encouraged your mother to move from her house into a facility. While assisted living is one of the best alternatives for elderly men and women who may be slowing down physically, dealing with chronic health issues, or facing other challenges, a lot of people have the wrong idea about it.
Just understand, you made the right call. And, if we are being honest, you can’t force your mother to make this move, right? You may have encouraged her. She may have debated you about it, but ultimately it was her decision.
This is the way it is with most aging seniors today. They have independence and autonomy to make decisions for themselves. Just because adult children, a spouse, friends, and other families may encourage them to do something because they worry about safety or other issues, it is still their decision.
But how can you help your mother feel better about this transition?

Assisted Living Pascagoula, AL: Transitioning to Assisted Living
Transitioning in life can be difficult at any stage. Whether you are young child, teenager, young adult, middle-aged person starting over after divorce, or an aging senior moving from the home you’ve lived in for years into a new facility, transition can be difficult.
The transition issue has nothing to do with where your mother is moving. It simply has to do with change. Inherently, most people don’t like change. They’re not used to it. They aren’t comfortable with it.
Change is inevitable. It happens all the time.
One of the most effective ways to help people go through difficult changes in life is not just to be emotionally supportive, but to listen.
How do you ‘listen’ in a situation like this?
Let your mother talk. She probably has doubts, fears, anxieties, worries, trepidations, and so forth. Listen to what she has to say. Don’t try to solve all her problems.
Most importantly, don’t be dismissive of those issues. You don’t have to agree with them. You don’t have to call them. But just listen to them.
Most of the time, people want somebody to listen to them. To hear them. To know that somebody is hearing their thoughts, their plea, their doubts, their fear. When your mother is able to express those concerns, doubts, and fears, and knows that you listen to her, it will make this transition a little bit easier for her to bear.
Then, once she moves in and realizes what assisted living truly offers, she will be thrilled to have made this choice.
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