L.E. "Ellie" Brown from Chateau Retirement Communities joins Suzanne to talk about how to best support our senior loved ones, particularly as they get older and might need to consider senior living. Ellie works with families every day, and shares common situations that she encounters as families try to help their loved ones. Ellie is Vice President Sales - Strategic Market Analysis, Branding & Sales Leadership for Chateau Retirement.
Ellie finds that a lot of families are facing similar challenges, obstacles, stereotypes about senior living, and misinformation. "It could be as simple as the daughter says, 'I visit with my mom every day, so she's got socialization.' I coach my sales teams to say, hold up now, that's not the same as peer-to-peer socialization. Visiting my dad is definitely visiting, but when he's with his compadres of the same age group, that's different... At the end of the day, how do we best support our parents at that point, our loved ones who still have every right to make all their decisions as independent, honorable people that have made it this far in life? With the exception if it's a dementia-type thing or a cognitive thing. Because we are starting to shift that, we're having to start making some decisions for them. What does that look like? And those conversations are hard, and there's no there's no perfect roadmap, right? Every family has their own dynamics, but how do we know when to say what we need to say, and how to say it? When does tough love come in? Because we're worried most of the time, [when] something's changed."
Families experience different aspects of denial. Ellie says, "There's multiple things going on there. As the adult daughter, there's my own denial going on. I don't want my mom or my dad, I don't want to accept this [situation]. Also, I have a busy life. I probably have stuff going on myself, job, grandkids, kids, my own stressors. There's a little bit of that disconnect. But also, parents are parents. They're great at faking it, great at confrontations. They're great at mom's pretending dad's better than dad's [really] doing. That's why the inquiries, and the leads, spike in January and February, because everybody sees each other during the holidays and we've got eyes on them."
Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton. Visit them online at https://www.chateauretirement.com or call 800.960.1944.
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/
