Health, Senior, Santa Monica, Senior Scene

New Quiz For Guidance With Aging Parents

Posted Jan. 16, 2012, 11:52 pm

Mirror Staff

You just returned home from holiday break with the horrifying realization that Mom or Dad needs help. You kept quiet in front of your parents, not to disrupt the good time, but when you get back home, settled into your routine, Mom’s forgetfulness or Dad’s clumsiness haunts you. You and your siblings don’t agree on the severity of the problem. You’re panicked. Unsure. How are you supposed to know if Mom or Dad needs help and to what degree?

That’s why Senior Helpers, one of the largest in-home senior care companies in the nation, has created the Senior Helpers’ Stay At Home Score quiz. It’s a quick, eight question quiz adult children take to help determine whether their parents can live independently in their own home.

The quiz was created for Senior Helpers by Dr. John Bowling, a professor at Southern Oregon University and an expert on senior care and positive aging. After you take the quiz, you have a good indicator if Mom or Dad needs help.

“Aging parents may insist they’re well enough to live in their own homes even if they’re not,” says Dr. John Bowling, senior care and positive aging expert, and creator of the Senior Helpers’ Stay At Home Score quiz. “I developed this quiz to give adult children a guideline to determine their parents’ needs, whether they are self-sufficient, if they can live at home with help from an in-home caregiver, or if it’s time to move them to a place where they can get round-the-clock care.”

Here are two sample questions. There are always five answers that range from Never to Always.

1. Support. My parent has easy access to a caring support system of family and friends that he/she can rely on for daily assistance with physical, financial, and emotional needs. These family members and friends can provide this support willingly, without compromising their own daily lives and schedules.

2. Mobility. My parent is very mobile and can walk indoors and outdoors easily, without falling. He/she can get into and out of bed, chairs, showers and tubs easily, and can climb stairs without slipping or pausing. He/she can safely operate an automobile and navigate city streets and highways.

Did you know?

• More than 10,000 people officially will hit senior status each day of 2012.

• One in eight adults in America is a senior.

• The U.S population will add one new senior every 13 seconds this year.

• About 10,000 Boomers will turn 65 every day.

• This phenomenon will continue, every second and every day, for the next 18 years.

• The senior population (65 and older) in 2030 is projected to be twice as large as in 2000, growing from 35 million to 72 million and representing nearly 20 percent of the total U.S. population.

To find out more about the Senior Helpers’ Stay At Home Score Quiz, visit www.stayathomescore.com.