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Independent Senior Living Toronto

Your guide to senior living in the City of Toronto

Independent senior living care in Toronto is second to none. This is a great way to live for people for whom living on their own is no longer ideal or possible.

Why move into senior living?

Many people who move into a retirement home move into independent living suites. Retirement communities offer a continuum of care; suitably healthy residents live in these suites, looking after most of their own needs but benefiting from communal meals and communal living and perhaps staying close to a partner who is further along the care continuum. The care continuum also includes assisted living, memory care, long-term care and other forms of care. Independent senior living can also include light assistance with tasks like laundry and housekeeping.  Homes are designed for optimal accessibility, and residents may also take advantage of some assistive technologies and design for mobility. Families and adult children who live in Toronto have easy access to these facilities and can visit senior family members regularly.

When is the right time to move?

Many times, people find themselves living in a home that is no longer suitable; perhaps it was built in the 1970's or even earlier. It might be outdated in some important ways or surely never designed with seniors in mind or with today's standards of safety and spaciousness. Homes may be unsafe for a number of reasons: strongly sloping, dangerous stairways, exterior porches prone to icing over, narrow hallways, tripping hazards including old carpeting, and many other household hazards. In the worst case, seniors may have a bad fall, which is often the final straw that results in the need for a move.

Deteriorating health is often another reason to move into independent living. When seniors live alone and get ill or suffer chronic health problems, the move into a retirement home may be a good solution so they can get the care and attention they need, when they need it.  If a senior has any reason for a hospital stay, the discharge planner may recommend the move to a care home, and family makes the decision whether or not to follow through on that recommendation.

When the cost for home upgrades or renovations or hiring in-home care becomes too much, the family may consider the better value of selling the home and moving elsewhere. In many cases, the best place to move may be into a seniors' home.

When many aging parents hear this, they balk and even put up strong resistance to the idea. This is understandable, but they may be missing out. Many of today's retirement homes, (like the independent senior living care options listed on this page) are surprisingly wonderful places.

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Benefits and features you can expect

Senior independent living care can come with a wide collection of excellent amenities. Some homes or retirement villages can be equipped with everything from stores to cafes to onsite golf courses; the list of possibilities is really only limited by your imagination. Seniors in these residences are happy, social, productive and creative. Many of them will admit that they feel rejuvenated by the move into one of these Toronto independent senior living residences.

Other things that may surprise you about today's independent living homes:

Further features. In addition to the amenities noted above, some retirement communities have onsite hair salons, movie theatres, games rooms, exercise areas, libraries, gourmet dining and many other excellent features.

Health services offered can include vitals monitoring, ostomy care, bathing assistance, incontinence care and others. These types of care offered are typically associated with assisted living care but this can be available in some residences and villages offering a continuum of care.

You can afford it. Some private retirement communities can seem lavish but consider all the items that are covered under one monthly cost: rent, heat, hydro, gas, groceries, meal prep, upkeep, snow removal, grass cutting, repairs, the list goes on. Then, when you consider your total income, along with other financial resources at your disposal, and how much it actually costs to live on your own, it can become very affordable for people.

Over time, we at Comfort Life have heard from Toronto residents surprised that it made more sense financially to live in a retirement home. One example is Muriel Patterson who figured out that she might actually save money if she moved into an independent senior living retirement home.  She was filling the car twice a week with gas, her grocery bill was around $200 a week and on top of that, "there was heat and hydro to pay, and we were paying $400 a month in condo fees."

She moved into a nearby senior independent living home and found that paying one monthly fee was about the same overall cost – and just simpler, too.  Besides, she adds, "I couldn't handle winter anymore. I couldn't handle chipping ice" and all the other problems with snow and cold. Avoiding the misery of cold Toronto winters is just one more good reason to consider the benefits of moving into one of today's surprising retirement residences.

How to get started

When you go into retirement homes, you will find that many of them are, in fact, very vibrant places, with people socializing actively and taking part in many interesting activities. There will often be a daily schedule of interesting things to take part in, and there are also many people doing independent things together like taking walks or just lounging and chatting. Many people find themselves freed in the new environment, taking up new passions and fully exploring ones they may have put off in the past. Independent senior living opens up the world in new ways for many people.