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Common Questions and Answers:
Find answers to commonly asked questions and learn about the different types of care communities, how to find and evaluate communities, and how to pay for care.
How do I go about selecting a community?
There are generally four steps you should follow in selecting the right community for yourself or your loved one:
- Choose the type of community you need from the five categories (nursing home, assisted living community, Alzheimer's care facility, independent living community or continuing care retirement community). more
- Search the choice of communities in your area. more
- Visit several communities you may be interested in. more
- Once you have narrowed your list to a few communities, evaluate the quality, value and services offered by those communities to make your final choice. more
Step 1. Choose the type of community you need from the five categories (nursing home, assisted living community, Alzheimer's care facility, independent living community or continuing care retirement community).
Please review the discussion elswhere in this Common Q&A section that explains the five categories. In evaluating what level of care you or your loved one requires, you should balance the future resident's needs with what you are able to pay taking into consideration all of the available funding sources. With respect to needs, it is helpful to make a list of the tasks that the resident currently needs, or will likely need in the future. For instance,
- Will the resident need help with basic activities of daily living (ADLs), such as eating, bathing, dressing and using the bathroom?
- Will the resident need or desire additional services, such as preparing meals, shopping, getting to appointments and paying bills?
- Will the resident need additional care, such as remembering to take medicines, monitoring diabetes, using eye drops, getting oxygen or taking care of colostomy or bladder catheters?
Generally, the more assistance needed, the higher the level of care required.
Step 2. Explore the choice of communities in your area.
Once you have decided what type of community you are seeking, you may search our extensive, database of providers here at ElderLivingSource.com at no cost to you. Our search capability allows you to search a comprehensive list of tens of thousands of providers from coast to coast. You can search by location, either city and state or zip code, to obtain a comprehensive list of communities in your area. Additionally, you may want to seek the advice of your friends or family members, hospital discharge coordinator, minister, social worker, doctor or lawyer, and obtain a list of communities they have experience with and recommend (keeping in mind that certain of these people, such as hospital discharge coordinators, are prevented by law from recommending one community over another). If you have a list you wish to explore, you can also search the ElderLivingSource.com database by community name to evaluate whether these recommendations are suitable enough to warrant a visit.
When you find communities on our site that you might be interested in, click the "Request Info" button to complete a brief form and send an email message to the community containing some basic information that will assist the community in determining what information should be provided to you. Our service allows you to explore an unlimited number of communities privately and efficiently from your home. Once you request information from a community, you can then expect to receive a packet of information about the community and perhaps a courtesy phone call to discuss your needs further. ElderLivingSource.com does not purport to screen you or steer you to communities within our Featured Facility network, nor will we contact you at home or release your personal information to any source whatsoever other than as necessary to fulfill your information request. We simply want to provide you with the best, most comprehensive and easiest to use resource for selecting the care you or your loved one needs and deserves.
Step 3. Visit several communities that interest you.
There is no substitute for visiting the communities that interest you and speaking with the residents and staff there. Make an appointment with the program coordinator or care supervisor before you go. When you visit, look around carefully. Ask questions about anything you don't understand. Talk to the staff, residents and family members if you can. Ask them if they are satisfied with the community and its services. Some questions you should answer for yourself include:
- Did they listen to me and make me feel comfortable?
- Did I get to ask all my questions?
- Did they give me answers I understood?
- Is the program staff respectful and helpful?
- Does the community meet my or my loved one's needs?
- Do residents appear clean and well groomed?
- Does the community offer programs that I or my loved one enjoy?
- Is the community clean and pleasant?
As you eliminate some communities from your list and your list grows shorter, you should plan on visiting more than once at different times of day to get a more complete picture of life at those communities.
Step 4. Evaluate the quality, value and services offered by the communities that interest you to make your final choice.
There are several avenues available for evaluating the quality of care provided by a community. For a community to be Medicare or Medicaid certified, they must regularly meet certain federal health and safety programs. Additionally, many, but not all, states license assisted living communities, requiring certain standards of care to be satisfied. There are also associations of communities that promote quality initiatives, such as the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) and the Continuing Care Accreditation Commission (CCAC). Membership in these and similar associations generally means that the community has elected to maintain certain levels of care that are in excess of what is required by law.
You should ask your friends and relatives about any experience they've had with the communities you are considering. Call your local office of consumer affairs, state health department and state or local long-term care ombudsman and ask about any record they have of a particular community. The phone numbers for these offices can be found in the blue pages of your local telephone directory. Additionally, the federal Administration on Aging website, www.aoa.gov, contains volumes of information and contacts you'll find useful in evaluating the quality of care a community offers.
If you are visiting a nursing home, ask about their most recent state inspection results. To maintain Medicare or Medicaid certification, nursing homes are inspected approximately once a year for a wide range of quality of care measures. Nursing homes generally post these results in the community, and in any event will provide you with those results upon request. Note, however, that the inspection captures only a moment in time in the normal nursing home cycle. If there are issues of concern in the inspection results, discuss them with the program manager at the community and ask him to explain the results to you and what is being done to remedy the issues. By and large, nursing homes strive to provide the highest quality care possible, and they will work to address your concerns.
Once you have completed these four steps, you should be very well prepared to make the best decision for yourself or your loved one.
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