While aging is an inevitable process, and certain physical and mental faculties might decline as we age, retirement communities, such as an independent living community respects your right to age with dignity. Independent living communities aim to help retirees live their retirement to the fullest by assisting them with daily tasks they need help with while providing opportunities for them to explore hobbies and interests. At our retirement community, we take an person-centered approach to provide the best quality of care for our residents. This means that we, as a team, value the relationship we have with our retirees and put people first. Here is how we respect your right to age with dignity.
No Infantilization
Some of our residents may suffer with cognitive and auditory issues making communication more arduous. In these cases, many are tempted to fall back on communication techniques typically used with children. However, at an independent living community, we speak to our residents how they deserve to be spoken to, like adults. We respect that retirees are adults with a wealth of knowledge and experience and instead of infantilizing them, our team makes sure to speak slowly and clearly if any of our residents are hard of hearing. We do not shout, only speaking louder if necessary.
Listen to Your Needs
As our health declines, older adults may need time to process and organize thoughts before responding or speaking. This does not mean that they do not have value to add or are unable to make sense of situations. We understand that feeling pressured or rushed can exacerbate language processing abilities but it is not a measure of intelligence, meaning that our residents who are not able to communicate as quickly are still capable of meaningful and complex thoughts. We are patient with our residents, allowing them to take their time to gather their thoughts and let them set the space of the conversations. We fully listen before responding and avoid cutting them off or completing their sentence for them.
Autonomy of Choice
While our goal is to assist our residents with tasks they need help with, we respect them by not making the decisions for them. This helps them maintain a sense of independence and normalcy. In cases where there is more serious cognitive decline, we still respect their choices as much as possible but assist them by narrowing down options for them to choose from to ease any struggle or confusion. If a resident want to make a choice that jeopardise their health or safety, we will always gently redirect them to a safer option.
Respect Privacy
Perhaps one of the most important aspect of aging with dignity, having your right to privacy is something that should not be taken from you at any age. Some of our residents take advantage of our concierge or housekeeping services when they require assistance with certain tasks that they might have been able to do by themselves their entire life. This does not mean that we violate their privacy and have access to all their information and belongings. We will always knock before entering when cleaning, ask for permission if things need to moved an
