What Type of Services to Look for in Assisted Living
Assisted living is not a nursing home. The residents do not require the medical care patients in a nursing home need. True, older people can often do less because of age. That includes difficulty putting on socks or shoes, trouble getting in and out of the bathtub, and inability to walk without aid. These people require help, sometimes regularly and other times sporadically.
Transportation
There comes a time when people who are perfectly able to drive, find it is not fun anymore. When you are trying to get on a highway with an eighteen-wheeler coming fast in your direction and four cars behind you, hurrying you along, a time comes when it is too taxing. The expense for an auto you do not use enough convinces you to give up the car.
In an assisted living home, good transportation at all times of day or night is necessary. Shopping for food or clothing, or getting to medical appointments, requires dependable transportation. You call on relatives and friends but feel you are taking advantage, and they are often busy. You feel uncomfortable. The assisted living home needs good transportation for residents.
Medical
People tend to become ill at night when their resistance is low. Alone, unable to get help, you worry. You lay in bed and wait too long, and now you have become dangerously ill. That is the time you need medical help near at hand. A trained staff member available at all times may save a life. You need to know someone is ready to help.
An assisted living home needs to have dedicated and trained personnel on-site at all times, a doctor or RN. It helps if the staff has taken a course for resuscitation and pulmonary emergencies. You will find AED CPR certification online at the link https://www.aedcpr.com/. Your family doctor is not available, but a staff person will be ready. You can call your doctor later.
Older people who have lost their ability to care for themselves, need help regularly, for small details, or constant help. Help needs to be available.
Food
Cooking is vital and at times, an enjoyable task. The problem with older people is that they sometimes cannot stand up long enough to cook a meal. Or they might forget to turn off the stove. They might forget to eat all together. If they live in a bungalow that has a kitchen, they can cook but still might need help. Someone must be able to plan and cook a meal and buy food supplies.
People get into habits. If meals are planned at a specified time and in the same place each day, it is easier to remember to eat. Some older people do forget to eat. You remember each day you need to go for your meal. Look for a place that has meals available.
Therapy
The older population has some problems unique to them or more often to them. Dementia is an ugly term and is feared by most people. If it happens, sometimes the person suffering is unaware of it. A friend often notices and does not know what to do. A friend does not have the authority to have the person treated, nor do you know whom to call and notify. Someone needs to know. If the home has a therapist, even on call, he will know how to get help for both the person with dementia and the friend who wishes to help.
Older people have no fewer problems than the rest of the population. They do need help from a therapist for nagging worries, for their problems or problems with relatives.
Conclusion
According to a study found on the national library of medicine done on nursing homes, and what services they provide. Few of them had an RN or doctor on staff or serving regular hours. It was found that more people in an assisted living home required care for medical problems and lack of mobility than expected, coming close to the population in nursing homes. Unhappily, what is real is that most of these services will not be found in most assisted living homes. As more people begin to enter assisted living, new regulations may cause improvements.
