There are a lot of senior living options available in today’s market. It’s no wonder why it’s easy to confuse one with the other. If you’re already on the lookout for senior care facilities, then you may be familiar with the terms assisted living facilities and assisted living homes. But do you know the difference between the two? When searching for your loved one’s long-term care options, it’s important to know your options.
Assisted Living Facilities
Assisted living facilities are a senior care option specifically created for older people who are unable to live on their own. Each facility offers personal care support services, such as:
- Bathing
- Eating
- Cooking
- Toileting
- Medication management
This type of facility typically houses anywhere from 40 to 300 beds. The staff is also available 24/7 to ensure that your loved one is safe and well taken care of. Most assisted living facilities offer basic services offered by different senior care options, such as independent living and skilled nursing care.
Assisted living facilities usually offer private or semi-private apartments that may be fully furnished along with a small kitchen area. Three healthy meals and snacks are usually provided by the facility. Seniors can socialize and eat with other residents in a central dining room. Transportation services, social activities, and other events are scheduled to keep residents socially active. Most facilities offer basic nursing services – off-site or on-site – depending on the facility. Special care unit for Alzheimer’s or dementia residents is also offered in some facilities.
The prices for many assisted living facilities can range from $4,500 to over $12,000 per month. This all depends on the type of apartment chosen and the level of care your elderly loved one needs. Should you include Alzheimer’s care, the monthly cost would be around $5,000 to $15,000. It’s important to remember that these prices are subject to change depending on the facility and location.
Assisted Living Homes
An assisted living home is for seniors who would rather live in smaller, home-like environment, at a lesser price. Similar to other senior care facilities, assisted living homes offer basic personal care and food services. Also, many of these homes provide medical care through mobile medical service or a contract with a registered nurse. However, it’s unlikely that they’ll have any medical staff. These homes are most likely former residential homes that are turned into assisted living businesses.
Since it’s a small senior care facility, they only provide care for up to 10 to 15 seniors. In this way, they’re able to offer a more personal and a home-like environment for your elderly loved ones. Assisted living homes may also be referred to as:
- Residential Care Homes
- Board and Care Homes
- Personal Care Homes
- Group Homes
- Adult Family Homes
- Adult Foster Care
Services Offered
Assisted living homes are perfect for seniors who prefer to live in a homey environment and do not need constant medical and personal attention. If your loved one needs 24/7 attention, only home health agencies, hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities offer this kind of service. However, this option is more expensive than other senior living facilities.
Here are some of the services provided by most residential care homes:
- Meal preparation
- Eating
- Housekeeping
- Laundry
- Bathing
- Toileting
- Transportation services
- Medication management and medication administering
- A semi-private or private room
- Some facilities offer financial and healthcare management
Assisted Living Facilities vs. Residential Care Homes
Since both residential care and assisted living offer similar services, you may be wondering how they differ from one another. As you may have noticed, both facilities are very much alike. There are two things that differentiate one from the other – the size of the facility and the cost. Assisted living facilities are typically bigger than residential care homes when it comes to the number of residents.
The level of care in residential care homes are more personal since one caregiver is assigned to three to four senior residents. If your elderly loved one is still active, independent living options, such as a continuing care facility is a better choice for them. Assisted living communities offer social activities and events, such as:
- Group exercises
- Outings and field trips
- Focus group discussions
Location Matters!!
When a senior enters an assisted living home, his/her loved ones would want to visit them easily. Another perk of assisted living homes is that they are more widespread than large assisted living facilities. Larger ones tend to have a single central location, while residential care homes can be found in neighborhoods everywhere. Most, if not all, families think that location is a major factor in selecting an assisted living facility for your loved one.
The lack of federal standards for senior living communities makes it more complicated to look for one. The licensing rules and regulations vary from each state, while other states didn’t even set standards for senior living.
If your state licenses residential care homes, you can look at surveys done by senior living communities in your area at your local licensing offices. To save you time and effort, you can ask the facility to show you the survey results instead. To start looking for a licensing agency near you, you might want to get in touch with the department of aging in your state. If you’re from Arizona, here is a link to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
One of the reasons why assisted living homes are so different from one another is that a lot assisted living homes are run by different types of people; from veterans, registered nurses, immigrants, and the like. Other facilities are even run by the caregivers or by the owner themselves. Which is why the first step in choosing an assisted living facility is to determine the needs of your elderly loved one. Prior to choosing the best senior care for your loved one, it’s best to visit and compare different types of homes.
Pricing for Assisted Living Homes
Monthly costs for residential care communities generally cost 20% to 50% less than larger assisted living communities. However, remember that the prices depend on the services offered and the location of each facility.
It’s undeniable that senior living can be pretty expensive. It’s a good thing there are different programs that can help you pay for it, such as Aid and Attendance Benefits for Veterans, Medicaid, and long-term care insurance to name a few.
Medicaid not only helps low-income seniors pay for long-term care but also helps in paying for medical expenses. However, an assisted living facility must be certified by the state to accept residents paying for Medicaid. So, you wouldn’t be able to use the benefit even if you qualify for it unless the facility enables you to do so. On the other hand, Medicare won’t be able to help in paying for assisted living fees since it doesn’t cover custodial care.
We usually start asking that question when Mom or Dad has a medical emergency and you work full time. You spring into action, stay flexible and focus on the need at hand. Then you need to put your work aside repeatedly to deal with your parents’ urgent medical issues. It can be extraordinarily stressful for you and, I’m sure, no picnic for your employer.
That medical issue can be any one of many issues that requires additional time commitments and focus, including: broken bones (hip, shoulder, leg, arm, etc), wound care, heart, kidney, several days at a rehabilitation center, medication adjustments, memory diagnosis, diabetes complications, other complications and depression; as well as being unable to perform daily functions as a result of this avalanche of medical emergencies. Your world will turn into chaos.
Millions of Americans face similar challenges and must make the painful choice between the care of their families and the paycheck they desperately need. Some workers have it especially difficult, having inflexible work schedules or schedules that are so unpredictable that it’s all but impossible for them to plan for caregiving.
Since you may find yourself trying to take on emergency caregiving duties while remaining employed, I thought I’d offer a few tips, based on my own experience and caregiving experts’ recommendations.
Talk Candidly With Your Boss
As soon as you know you will need to take off hours and sometimes days, let your boss know. That helps when beginning to coordinate your plans and gives your employer an idea of what you are facing. Hopefully, your boss will be understanding.
Not every employer is as sympathetic, though. Experts have told the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at public meetings about workplace discrimination that unlawful employment discrimination based on caregiving responsibilities has become a widespread problem.
Use the Family and Medical Leave Act if You Can
If you’re fortunate to work for a company where you can take advantage of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which can be a godsend for caregivers that qualify, take it!
Under this law, you may be entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a variety of reasons, including caring for a parent with a serious health condition. If possible, you should discuss a planned leave with your human resources department 30 days in advance. Of course, if an emergency arises, you’ll need to act more quickly.
Push Your Parent’s Doctor’s Office
No surprise that using the family leave law means dealing with mounds of government paperwork. You’ll need written certification from your parent’s physician that the condition meets the tests to let you take an unpaid leave. Otherwise, the law won’t let your manager approve it.
Some doctor’s offices are better at expediting family leave forms than others. So you may need to hound your parent’s doctor’s office — as if you’ll have the time or patience for that when your parents are in dire straits.
Ask if Your Employer Has Other Caregiving Benefits
You may be fortunate to also have a generous Parental and Serious Illness Leave policy, allowing two weeks’ paid time off to care for a family member.
Check with your manager or human resources department to see whether your employer offers caregiving benefits aside from the federal law’s unpaid family leave. For instance, there may be an Employee Assistance Program that can help you find a caregiving agency or assisted living community near your parents.
Change Your Work Hours Temporarily
Plan a strategy that will provide you as much flexibility as needed and still allow you to fulfill your work commitments. It may mean getting to work 3 or 4 hours earlier, or staying later. If your job has work that can be done while you spend time in waiting rooms, it is a big plus. Plan on computer time at night, after visiting hours is over at the hospital and the rehab center. If your employer offers flexible work schedules or telecommuting (as about one-quarter of companies do), talk with your manager about using one of these options, temporarily.
Consider Hiring Senior Care Professionals
The best place to start is with an evaluation at an assisted living facility. You can evaluate the place, and the medical professionals can meet your parent and you. This can assess your caregiving situation, provide you with a care plan, and even help assist with coordinating home and community-based services your loved one may need.
Vista Living Senior Care offers complimentary evaluations to make sure we can help and your parent or loved one can thrive. Vista Living Senior Care is a place to make friends, enjoy the meals and activities, but most importantly trust the level of care provided. At Vista Living Senior Care, you’ll see and feel the difference right away.
At Vista Living Senior Care, our team helps seniors improve the quality of their life by making our purpose built 10 resident Luxury Senior Care Homes in the Phoenix Arcadia area something special. We focus on Care, Healthier Diet and an Activity Program Focused on Smiles & Laughter.
Sit and Be FIT exercises start our days and attendance is impressive with no one showing up late.
Seniors exercising At Vista Living Senior Care
We urge you to consider Vista Living Senior Care for your loved one, please schedule a tour and learn how we can help. We know we have something special. Let us show you.
For more information please call Vista Living Senior Care at 480-456-1919 or Visit VistaLiving.net.
Top 3 Healthy Eating Tips for Seniors
It’s a known fact that as we age, our body’s metabolism slows down and our body’s system gets weaker making us more prone to developing chronic diseases. This is why seniors, in particular, may need to change their diet especially when their diet is composed of unhealthy foods.
Physicians usually recommend that seniors should eat lots of fruits and vegetables as well as proteins and whole grains in order for them to maintain a healthy diet that could improve their overall health.
The American Dietetic Association has recommended that aside from a healthy diet, caregivers could also take part in boosting their loved one’s health by incorporating a few extra nutrients in their food.
1. Fix Them a Nutrient-Rich Meal
As a person ages, there is a need for them to decrease their calorie intake and increase their nutrient intake. Nutrients such as calcium, omega 3, and potassium are important to provide enough nutrients for your senior loved one. Here’s why:
Calcium
As people grow older, they become more susceptible to vitamin D and calcium deficiency which could affect their bone health. This is why there is a need for older people to increase their calcium intake in order to maintain their bone strength. Aside from that, lack of calcium in the body could also help increase blood pressure.
According to the World Health Organization, people over the age of 50 are recommended to take at least 1,200 milligrams of calcium each day. This is more or less equal to 4 cups of orange juice, dairy milk, fortified non-dairy milk such as soy or almond. Kale, turnip greens, and other leafy vegetables are also known to be rich in calcium that is easily absorbed by the body.
If your loved one finds it challenging to incorporate this much calcium into their everyday meal, your physician may recommend calcium supplements should they need it.
Omega 3
Omega 3 fatty acids have shown that they are extremely helpful in reducing oxidative stress and inflammation in the body which are one of the top causes of heart diseases, arthritis, and cancer. Canola oil, flaxseed oil, flaxseed, walnuts, and fish are great sources of the omega 3 nutrient. Seniors are recommended to have at least 2 meals per week that are rich in this nutrient. If there is a need to fill in the deficiency, your loved one’s doctor may recommend omega 3 supplements.
2. Reduce Sodium Intake
One of the most important thing that a caregiver can do to reduce the risk of hypertension in their senior loved one is to prepare a meal that has a low salt content. Many people don’t know that table salt only accounts for a small percentage of the overall sodium content in food.
Processed, frozen or any takeout foods are usually the type of food that have a high sodium content so it’s best for seniors to eat less or completely avoid these. Fresh frozen produce, on the other hand, along with dry beans, unsalted nuts, and nut butter, and whole grains like oats or brown rice are known to have less sodium content. As much as possible try to incorporate these types of food to your loved one’s diet.
3. Let them Drink Lots of Water
Older people are more at risk for dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. The main reason is that as a person ages, the body’s ability to conserve water is reduced and older people often don’t feel thirsty and when they do, the body’s fluid levels are already low. Even if that’s the case, they still need the same amount of liquids in their bodies which is why you need to make sure that they’re drinking water as often as they can even if they don’t feel thirsty.
You can tell if your loved one is properly hydrated or lacks water through the color of their urine. If their urine is clear or light-colored, they’re likely properly hydrated. However, if it appears cloudy or dark in color, then it’s a sure sign that they need to start drinking lots of fluids.
Helping Your Senior Loved One Switch to a Healthier Diet
Making the switch to a healthier diet can be quite challenging for most people – especially seniors since they have become stuck to the habit. Most people are not usually open to changes. This statement holds true for the seniors which is why it’s important to make gradual changes.
There are times when your senior loved one will resist making dietary changes even if the doctor says so. It’s especially common among dementia patients who sometimes insist on doing what they want. However, you may be able to do something about this by being creative.
Deciding to make dietary changes is essential especially as people get older. Giving your senior loved one a nutrient-rich meal as often as possible helps in preventing and managing chronic medical issues such as cardiovascular diseases. Eating healthy won’t only ensure that your loved one’s health is at its best but it will also ensure that they will spend the rest of their golden years with so much more energy.
At Vista Living Senior Care, our team helps seniors improve the quality of their life by making our purpose built 10 resident Luxury Senior Care Homes in the Phoenix Arcadia area something special. We focus on Care, Healthier Diet and an Activity Program Focused on Smiles & Laughter.
Sit and Be FIT exercises start our days and attendance is impressive with no one showing up late.
Seniors exercising At Vista Living Senior Care
We urge you to consider Vista Living Senior Care for your loved one, please schedule a tour and learn how we can help. We know we have something special. Let us show you.
For more information please call Vista Living Senior Care at 480-456-1919 or Visit VistaLiving.net.
