As our life expectancy increase elderly people are living longer, fuller lives. For many of them this may mean placing their spouse in a nursing home because they can no longer look after them at home.

Husbands and wives will both react differently when their spouse moves into a nursing home. Husbands usually accept this fact and realize they are providing the best possible care for their wives. Wives may feel very guilty because they can no longer look after their husbands at home.

For the spouse left at home they have to adjust to being single and not being needed as much. It is sometimes difficult for them to give up the responsibilities of care giving and not have their spouse around. Both spouses have to develop new relationships with the staff and residents at the nursing home.

At Algonquin, the staff helps the new resident and their spouse deal with these changes. They work with the “healthy” spouse and show them how they can still provide care for their loved one. They help the “ill” spouse adjust to his/her new surrounding.

When one or the other spouse moves into Algonquin they are no longer in the comfort of their own home. But the companionship the resident finds makes them feel at home at Algonquin “A Place Called Home”.