3 Tips for Finding Pet-Friendly Assisted Living
The compassionate volunteers at Furry Friends understand how important pets can be for seniors. Even a short visit from pets, including companion animals and therapy animals can improve the mental well-being of seniors in long-term care facilities, and pets can also protect their physical health.
So if you are preparing to make the move to assisted living, it makes sense that you want to bring your personal pets along. You just need to find the right community to ensure that you will be able to care for that pet and still preserve your quality of life. Here’s what to keep in mind.
Pet-Friendly Assisted Living May Be More Expensive
Pets and senior care can mix well together, and finding an assisted living option that is pet-friendly shouldn’t be a major hassle. Many communities do allow pets. Just bear in mind that these communities may come with higher expenses and fees.
If you currently own a home, now may be the perfect time to sell it and use the proceeds to help out with the costs of pet-friendly assisted living. You can research current market trends to see if you need to make improvements to sell your home for the most profit and offset care costs.
Pets Need to Be Good Citizens to Thrive in Assisted Living
Is your pet people-friendly? For dogs, some traits of canine good citizens include the following:
- Will accept friendly strangers.
- Will sit politely to be petted.
- Able to stay calm in crowds.
This is what Furry Friends looks for in every potential therapy dog, but it’s also crucial for your pets to be well-behaved before you consider moving them to an assisted living community. That’s because you are more likely to be in close quarters with other people and the last thing you want is for your pet to cause an issue. Training can help with this if your pet is anxious.
Caring for Pets Can Become More Challenging With Age
If you are considering a move to assisted living, it may be because you need help with what are considered activities of daily living, or ADLs. ADLs include routine tasks that we often take for granted, like preparing meals, getting dressed, and managing medications.
When you need help taking care of yourself, you may also need help taking care of your pet. That doesn’t mean you have to give them up but just that you may need to look into hiring folks to help out with walks, feedings, grooming, and more. Some communities may even provide these extra services to residents but it never hurts to have options.
Pets can add so much to the lives of seniors. If you are planning a move to assisted living, you shouldn’t have to give these perks up. Do your homework to find the best pet-friendly communities in your area and then come up with a plan to cover any associated costs.
Furry Friends provides therapy dog visits on the Oregon Coast. To learn more about our services, fill out the contact form on our website.
James Hall
Furry Friends Therapy Dogs 