Moving an aging loved one can be a difficult task. In many cases they are leaving a family home they know and love and that holds years of memories. On top of that, they are usually asked to downsize their treasured belongings. Luan Morrow offers great solutions that make the process less painful and more positive.
Morrow is the owner of Easy Transition Advisors, a senior move manager business, which offers different levels of help to seniors and their families during moving and downsizing. With 30+ years of experience in senior care, Morrow enjoys helping others, especially seniors. While working in a variety of positions, her favorite part was interacting with the residents in senior housing.
“I like to say I finesse the issue. We talk more about moving forward and what would give them good quality of life moving forward and we finesse the change,” said Morrow.
When dealing with families, aging seniors usually don’t want to disappoint other family members. Offering seniors a sense of control and support are key. Forcing your senior into the new transition with phrases like ‘you have to go’ makes the process more difficult. “That’s not the way to do it because they get defensive and now you have a confrontation. We want to stay non-confrontational. So we just validate their feelings and move forward to the task at hand,” said Morrow.
Morrow described a recent situation involving an older gentleman in his 80s moving into an assisted living facility. He dreaded to get rid of his two closets full of clothing. To solve this issue, Morrow brought wardrobe boxes with the same amount of space as his new closet. This allowed her client to understand the visual of the space he had to work with. “I’m not saying “no, you can’t take that” I’m just saying everything has to fit in these boxes in order for it to fit in your new home,” said Morrow.
When working with clients who have memory impairments, Morrow turns to a book she found about 20 years ago titled ‘Validation Therapy.’ This book encourages readers to take the opportunity to agree with the senior while still moving on to the task at hand. When a senior says they don’t want to go, Morrow agrees with them by saying “’I understand, I wouldn’t want to go either, this is a beautiful place, but we are going to move today and we have to decide what we’re going to take.’ And that conversation with a memory-impaired person could occur easily a hundred times in a couple hours.”
With lots of love and patience, Morrow has helped countless families and their aging loved ones through typically stressful transitions. She couldn’t imagine working in any other career.
“I can’t save the whole world, but I can help people at a critical time in their life and make a difference in their life, make a difference in their family,” said Morrow.
Secure Aging wants transitions to be less stressful for the senior and their family. We can help make life easier by tracking monthly income and expenses, as well as fully advocating for our clients’ well-being and safety. We are here to help make your life easier and keep your loved ones safe.
Reba Rogers, CPA, is the founder of Secure Aging, a group of care managers who preserve the independence and protect the assets of seniors by helping them with financial management. She is also a Director Consultant for BNI (Business Network International), a referral marketing organization which gives her access to many trusted business professionals in the community.
