Many of you are reading this as you have been wondering if a Retirement Home may be the answer for your Mum or Dad. Well an apartment at Park Lodge could indeed be the answer.
Park Lodge is one of thousands of Retirement Developments throughout Britain that incorporate Self contained flat living with Wardens on site during the day, helping residents with any problems and giving them peace of mind should anything happen.
The flats come with specialhly designed features like easy to reach electrical sockets and red emergency pull chords that call the Warden during the day or alert the Careline Back-up that operates the night shift.
These schemes are a constructive answer to the main problem of advancing age; the difficulty in coping. Housework becomes to heavy, the garden a burden and general home maintenance is often just forgotten.
Plus for those living alone, the thoughts of lying helpless after an accident or illness becomes a frightening possibility.
For want of a better phrase, these 'communal retirement living' complexes not only side step such extremes but also makes an obvious contribution to the residents well-being. For example in the 22 years I've been selling retirement homes in Billericay I've only known one person sell and move on before 'they had to'. A good advert for these developments don't you think?
One of the key attractions to my older clients is the residents Lounge area, where like minded and aged people can get together for chats over tea or play cards etc. A boon for some who have been living alone and often not seeing other people from one day to another.
I'm open to correction, but believe the first of these 'sheltered schemes' was opened in 1947, where residents rented instead of bought - nowadays you have both options.
Sir Frank Elgood, Chairman of the Church Army Housing, had the bright
