Elder Care & Senior Living

As senior citizens age, there comes a time when they are not as capable of taking care of themselves, their homes and their personal lives as they used to be. Perhaps, the house that they have lived in and taken care of for so long is becoming too much of a burden for them. However, they are no where near ready to live in a nursing home.

At this time in one’s life, assisted living is quite often the perfect solution for the senior as well as their families. There are basically two types of senior assisted living arrangements. One is an apartment in a senior assisted living facility. The other is in a senior assisted living “campus”. These are set up like efficiencies and basically include a very small kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom. They are available for both singles and couples. You can view the licensed assisted living facilities in your city and state.

Many times with these types of living arrangements, the seniors are given their privacy, but there is someone to check in on them. Quite often a nurse’s station or infirmary is located right on the premises. Many of these facilities require the senior to check in with a particular number by a specified time of day. They are given numbers or buzzers to push. This is just to assure that the person is alright. If they are not heard from, someone is dispatched to their apartment to make sure they are okay.

These facilities include a small kitchen so that one can prepare their own meal if desired. However, there is usually a cafeteria which provides breakfast, lunch and dinner. The benefit of eating in the cafeteria is to meet new people. Many times these facilities run daily trips with a shuttle to the grocery stores, malls, movies and many other places. Also there is usually a club house or meeting room which hosts an abundance of activities. These range from bingo to crafts and the like.

There are some restrictions in many senior assisted living centers. The main one is having guests spend the night. Some facilities do not allow this at all and some will allow family, usually only one at a time to spend the night. They usually require approval from the management. There are certain rules on visits by children, but these differ by facility.

According to some Internet sites that deal with senior citizens, there are a little over 19,000 senior citizen retirement homes that qualify as nursing centers in The United States. The population of elderly in these senior citizen homes are more than one million. That figure makes the percentage of senior citizens at close to 6% of the total population. The United States Census Bureau gives us the number of total population of people age 65 and older in the United States at 35. 9 million. The numbers given by nursing home centers state that as many as 20% of that population will be in nursing homes at some time in their lives.

As more and more people are living longer, the projected size of elderly people living in nursing homes is probably going to increase. There are some reasons for the increase in size of elderly living in nursing homes that are probably due to medical breakthroughs that can keep senior citizens alive longer even with diseases and some age related illnesses like dementia but require full time nursing care that only a nursing home can provide. The need for nursing home attendants will probably also increase as the job requires a level of commitment that can only be met by having a small caseload of senior citizens per nursing home attendants.

Age related disorders like Alzheimer’s as well as dementia has boosted the nursing home population. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has some good advice on how to find a nursing home for a senior citizen. Their information also includes those nursing homes that are certified Medicare or Medicaid approved.
These nursing centers give qualified nursing care by professional nurses as well as daily living assistance for the elderly.

The current 6% estimate of the total elderly population in nursing homes was a number determined in 2009. As the senior population increases, the total population in nursing homes will surely increase. There are also some other considerations to think about in arriving at a number of senior citizens in nursing homes. Some elderly retirement centers qualify as nursing homes because they are state licensed to provide medical care for their residents. On the other hand, there are also many senior citizens living in other elderly retirement centers that also provide nursing care but are not state licensed. Another consideration with the one million elderly living in nursing homes number is that some of these people are under the age of 65 and living in nursing homes and are therefore part of the total population of senior citizens living in nursing homes number that is given.

Adult day care is a service that provides older adults or the elderly a place to go during the day time hours while the family members or caregivers work or have things to do and can not provide care for a few hours or for the whole day. Adult day care centers give the family or the person caring for the elderly a break from the everyday routine of having to care for them. There are many places that provide a safe and comfortable place for the adult or person to go and get the care and attention they may need during their stay. Some nursing homes will have a respite program or a day care available for help with your family member who needs the assistance during the day. There are also agency’s that can send a qualified caregiver to you home to stay with them when you can not be there or have things you need to do and taking them with you is not an option.

The adult day care providers offer many benefits and have many different programs and activities they can give to keep the adult active while they are there. They can give different levels of care based on each persons needs. Most adult day care facilities can provided physical therapy or social interactions, their staff are trained and certified. There is constant supervising the care they give and during all activities provided by the day care center. They also provide meals or take them as a group on social outings. Arts and crafts to keep them active and provides a relaxed atmosphere for the adult to be comfortable while they are there. The adult day care centers are different from a health care center. At the day care centers a doctors evaluation is not needed for placement and in a adult health center you must have the doctors order to place your family member here.

Whatever level of care or the needs of the adult, having the options of taking them to a day care center is a welcome and worry free way to ensure that your loved one is being cared for and provided with the best level of care possible. There are many places to help you look and find the best place for your loved one. Contacting local nursing homes or care centers and asking if they provide a day respite is a great way to get the information. Many places have online websites that give information for the type of care provided and the cost of adult day care. Adult day care is a good option to have when admitting them into a nursing home is not an option.

What to look for in a senior healthcare facility

When a family is looking for a senior care facility, they will have to do plenty of shopping around until they can find the perfect one for their elderly. When you’re putting your parents or grandparents away in a facility, you want to be able to trust the staff there to give the right care and be as professional as they can be with your elderly. You can’t rest your mind until you know that the facility can achieve these goals.

I wouldn’t put my parents away in a facility that deem unsafe or unprofessional with high cost. I would look for a facility that is safe, ethical, follow the laws, and have an affordable coverage plan for my elderly. The family would also look for good reviews of the company, comfort of the rooms, easy access to local shopping center, bus, and park, clean building and a sound contract. All of these factors are very crucial when it comes to looking for a senior care facility. I wouldn’t pick a facility that doesn’t meet most of these conditions.

You have to walk around with a check list and make sure that the facility that you choose satisfied your check list. One of the most important things that you would look for in a senior care facility is safety for your family member. Nothing is more important than safety, you can’t go without knowing the reviews of the facility and the safety level at their facility. You can go on Google and type in the name of the facility that you chose and look at their reviews. There is a high chance that you will run into a lot of reviews about them. You always want to read reviews from past clients. The staff there can lie to you but real reviews won’t lie to you.

The next thing that you want to look for in a senior care facility is coverage. It will be really helpful if they take Medicare or insurance or have affordable payment plans. You want the payment plans to be fair and similar to most other facility. If they fall short in some ways then you should consider another facility. You would have to read the contract very carefully and make sure that they’re all legal and that you can abide by them. The little prints take everything away.

You would also look for the level of care and professionalism of the staff there. The director of the facility won’t be there to care for your parents. It will be the nurses and the doctors. You want to walk around the facility and see for yourself. You can also talk to some of the staff to get a feeling of their service and commitment. These things are every important because your elderly can be very unhappy if the staff treat them poorly or neglect them and it can happen. The important factors to look for would be safety, professionalism, commitment, coverage, and easy access to important places like shopping center and transportation center.

The term nursing home care is a generic term meaning a facility where those unable to care for themselves are housed. They come in several different levels of care, dependent upon how much care an aged, or disabled person, may need. However, the one thing Skilled Nursing Care, Assistant Living Care, and Independent Living have in common is the price. It is out of reach of many that are in need of its services.

Independent Living

This label says it all. It is living within the confines of a community where care is available when it is needed. This has been the most recent development in assisting the elderly, assisting them to care for themselves. Houses are wide, accommodating wheelchairs and hospital bed — if and when needed — roomier and built for easy maintenance. There may be other restrictions as to age limits of those buying into the homes. Near by will be help when and if it is needed.

Assisted Living

This is institutional living but as the name applies, assistance is given only when it is needed. The residents eat in a communal dining room and those who need special medications and doctor appointments have these taken care of by the attendants. Often two or three share a room and all share a lounge. Private rooms are more expensive. The better ones attempt to have some kind of entertainment from time to time. Help is most likely low level and when supervised medical conditions are needed, visiting nurses and other specialists make periodic checks.

Skilled Nursing

This is where those who are incapacitated with chronic illnesses such as strokes and other neurological and muscular diseases are given professional care. A registered nurse is on the staff and this facility more resembles a hospital than do assistant living places of care. The downside is not only the expense, but often the lack of help. Most nursing homes of either type, assisted living facilities or skilled nursing home, are understaffed.

What are future considerations? Finding alternatives to expensive care as it is now is necessary. Whether elderly and disabled care will resort back to smaller, private, one, two or three patients being cared for by private citizens in their home — as it was done before Nursing Homes became regulated — is possible. Of course for this to happen, Medicare and other types of insurance would have to be available.