Becoming a part of a vibrant, social community that can support you as your needs change is the main attraction of Assisted Living. Many residents are supported through hospice and end-of-life in this setting. Residents are able to maintain their independence and set up their own studio, one or two-bedroom apartments with their own furniture, a kitchenette, and a private bathroom.
You can move into assisted living before needing any care. When care is needed it is delivered right to you 24/7. Care costs are additional to basic rent. A customized care plan is created for each person receiving care. Scheduled assistance such as help taking a shower, getting dressed, and medication administration is supported in this setting as well as unscheduled assistance like help to the bathroom. Residents are given a help button to wear as a necklace to push as needed for unscheduled assistance.
Unfortunately, each year we receive calls from people needing to move out of their assisted living home for unanticipated reasons. If you are seeking care in an assisted living facility please carefully review the Disclosure of Services for each place you are considering. The Disclosure of Services is often handed out during a tour, and always available by request. It’s one thing to know prior to moving in that you’ll have to move out if you start needing pureed food, it’s another story altogether to have to leave your friends when you didn’t realize ahead of time that your facility couldn’t puree food.
Care for people with dementia varies greatly in assisted living communities. Some have a lot of built-in support for people with memory loss and secure memory care units and others do not.
Another common reason people move out is that they can no longer afford it and the facility does not accept Medicaid.
