Helping a Parent With Activities of Daily Living: A Guide for West Michigan Families

Adult children need to ask hard questions and make tough decisions when they notice changes in their aging parent’s abilities. Many seniors living in West Michigan want to stay there, but their families struggle to make sense of their options. Before a skipped meal or a medication mistake becomes an emergency, families know they need to act on these changes, though many don’t know how.

When choosing senior care options in Michigan, ADL and medical needs are two important factors to consider. Recognizing the signs that a senior loved one needs help with ADLs, or activities of daily living, can help ease the process for seniors and their adult children. The Courtyard at Wyoming will provide assisted living, memory care, and respite care for West Michigan families to give them options moving forward.

Here’s a guide to help you and your family understand ADLs and find a clear path forward for your senior loved one’s care in West Michigan, plus a downloadable sheet with some important facts to keep in mind.

What Are Activities of Daily Living?

Activities of daily living are the everyday self-care tasks most people perform without a second thought, such as grooming and eating. Providers across Michigan use ADL as a medical term to measure whether seniors need daily assistance and what level of care they should seek. However, there is no objective measure of how many ADLs a person needs to complete to live independently. Many families wonder how to put the signs they notice into the right context.

To make matters more confusing, there are few nationally recognized statistics for measuring and tracking ADLs in aging populations, so many families are unaware of the likelihood that their parent will need help.

One helpful piece of information comes from a 2021 study of Medicare beneficiaries, where 37% of those aged 65 and over reported difficulties in performing ADLs or IADLs, which are instrumental activities of daily living, explained below. In addition, 5% reported limitations in three or four ADLs, representing a significant ability gap.

For your reference, here’s a list of the six core ADLs that medical providers in Michigan will be looking at:

• Bathing and grooming, including washing in the shower or bath and keeping up with personal hygiene
• Dressing, such as choosing clothing suited to the weather and putting it on without help
• Eating, meaning the ability to feed oneself once a meal is ready
• Toileting, including getting on and off the toilet and managing hygiene afterward
• Transferring, or moving between a bed, a chair, and a standing position without falling
• Continence, meaning control of bladder and bowel function

There are also IADLs, which are more complex tasks related to ADLs. They are often the first signs that a loved one will soon need medical help with their daily routine. IADLs include cooking, managing money, dosing medications, and driving to appointments.

Signs Your Parent May Need Additional Support

It’s one thing to know the definitions of ADLs and IADLs and another to recognize them in your family’s situation and start researching services that can provide support for ADLs in West Michigan. When it’s someone you love, the signs can be easy to ignore. However, noticing subtle yet clear signs of issues with daily living is the best time to start planning for the future, before an emergency or a year of worrying wears everyone down.

​Since senior parents may not always tell their adult children when they need daily caregiving services, this list of common initial signs can help families recognize the pattern before the issues become worse:

• Unintended weight loss, spoiled food in the refrigerator, or a clear drop in appetite
• Unwashed laundry, noticeable body odor, or wearing the same clothing for several days
• Unexplained scrapes or bruises, unsteady walking, or evidence of a recent fall
• Missed medications, confusion about doses, or unopened pill bottles
• Growing isolation, irritability, loneliness, or disinterest

These signs can have other causes as well. They may indicate a temporary or chronic condition that warrants treatment. However, multiple signs with a clear pattern often indicate the need for ADL and medical support.

Free Download: Understanding Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)

Research into ADLs and senior care can help families understand their situation and find the right care for their loved one’s needs. Check out our free info below so you don’t have to scour the internet for data.

[DOWNLOAD HERE]

Professional Caregiving Services in West Michigan

Families in West Michigan have several ways to support a parent who needs help with ADLs. The right choice depends on how much assistance they need and what kind of medical oversight makes sense. Here are the core options available:

• In-home care brings professional caregiving services to your parent’s own home, with help ranging from a few hours a week to around-the-clock support
• Adult day programs offer supervised activities and social connection during daytime hours
• Assisted living provides personal care, meals, and health monitoring personalized to each resident’s needs in a residential community setting
• Memory care offers a secure setting and specialized daily support for seniors living with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia
• Respite care offers families short-term medical care to help their loved one recover from a hospital stay or injury or to give a family member a break from daily caregiving

At The Courtyard at Wyoming, families in West Michigan will be able to move from assisted living to memory care without changing communities. Both family members and the community’s care team can help monitor ADLs and adjust care as needed.

The team will also provide respite care for short-term stays, which can serve a dual purpose for families. They can give family caregivers a temporary rest or help their loved one recover from an illness. At the same time, they can introduce seniors to the community and team without the pressure of a permanent decision. A positive experience in a respite stay can make the eventual discussion about long-term care much easier.

How to Talk With Your Parent About Getting Help

Bringing up the idea of long-term care can be daunting for many adult children. Studies show that 60% of older adults want to stay in their own homes even after they need care, while only 18% want to move into assisted living. These numbers represent an uphill battle for many adult children as they notice issues with ADLs and try to start the discussion.

Yet, they also reveal a legitimate fear among older adults of losing independence and control. The best way to approach the long-term care discussion is to start by acknowledging this understandable worry. After all, it was a worry their own parents had, and it’s a worry that adult children will have with their own kids years from now. It’s a natural reaction to significant change.

The core point should always be that assisted living is not a loss of independence. In many cases, it leads to greater freedom because residents can now continue doing the tasks they can manage without overexerting themselves on yard work or property upkeep. Though many older adults worry about even having the discussion, adult children need to be the voice of empathy and reason, observing real instances of needing help, and bringing other voices into the discussion.

Family friends, spouses, neighbors, pastors and priests, and doctors can all help offer their advice, taking some pressure off families. This is another reason why it’s so important to start the discussion early, while your parent still has a choice in their care and a medical emergency isn’t forcing everyone to act quickly.

Frequently Asked Questions