Assisted Living
Assisted Living residences offer housing, hospitality services and personal assistance to adults who can live independently but require regular help with daily activities. Accommodation can range from private rooms with lockable doors in a home, to an apartment-style building with private self-contained suites, usually their own bathrooms and cooking facilities. The residence provides a place where people can eat together and socialize. Assisted living operators provide five hospitality services: meals, housekeeping, laundry, social and recreational opportunities and a 24-hour emergency response system. Residents also receive personal assistance with activities of daily living, such as eating, dressing, bathing, grooming, mobility and reminders or assistance with medications. Assisted living is intended for people who are able to choose and direct the services they receive (often referred to as being able to make decisions on their own behalf or direct their own care).
Is Your Parent Ready for Assisted Living? Ask Yourself These Questions…
It’s easy to overlook signs of decline in older adults, so ask yourself the following questions to help you determine if your parent is ready for assisted living:
- Is your parent telling you that he is eating, but you’re seeing food go bad in the refrigerator?
- Is your parent covering up bruises from falling that he or she doesn’t want you to see?
- Have you seen your parent wearing the same clothes when you go to visit?
- Does your parent hear strange noises in the night?
- When you look around the house or yard, is it as neat and clean as it used to be?
- Is your parent able to take medications correctly?
- Does your parent respond appropriately to an emergency?
- When you really look at your parent, do you see the bright and vibrant person from years ago, or do you see a more limited person who needs some help one hour a day, three hours a day, or around the clock?
If you answered yes to even a couple of these questions, your parent may be ready for an assisted living facility.
Independent Living
Independent Living includes a combination of housing and hospitality services for retired adults who are capable of directing their own care. Housing units typically provide a combination of private living space with a lockable door, monitoring and emergency support, optional meal services, housekeeping, laundry, social and recreational opportunities. Housing units may be large or small in scale and may include rented, owned or life-leased options.
Complex Care
Complex Care (Residential) units provide accommodation, care and supervision for retired adults who are no longer capable of directing their own day-to-day activities. Complex Care settings typically provide a combination of housing and hospitality services, as well as extensive support services. These settings include intermediate care facilities, multilevel care facilities, extended care hospitals and private hospitals.
Campus of Care
Campus of Care is a site that offers Independent, Assisted Living and Complex Care housing inone location. This structure allows an individual to move from one care option to the next as their health needs change without having to move to a new facility. They may need to move, however, to an area of the facility that corresponds with their new level of care.
An excerpt from SENIOR LIVING HOUSING GUIDE; JAN 2008