Evaluating an Assisted Living Facility

Whether you are evaluating an assisted living facility for yourself , your parents or a friend, you are in good company. Thousands of Americans each year find themselves faced with the need to evaluate and select an assisted living facility. The process may include evaluating an assisted living facility through an on site visit or you may narrow your choices by evaluating an assisted living facility either on line or through prepared written material. However you go about the task of evaluating assisted living facilities you will want to keep it simple and make it relevant to the needs of the intended occupant. Using these guidelines might be a helpful first step toward these ends.

1. Safety One of the main reasons why people begin to evaluate assisted living facilities is because they begin to have serious concerns about personal safety in their current dwelling. If safety concerns are driving your search, then your evaluation should include a serious look at the safety features of each assisted living facility you evaluate, and you should ask yourself these questions. Is the property in general and the apartments individually well secured yet easy for residents to access? Are there safety railings in the hallways and in common areas? Do individual apartments have carpeting that will allow you to move without tripping or skidding? If you have a walker can it be moved easily throughout the building. Is the bathroom equipped with safety signaling devices, proper matting and safety bars to help access tub and shower? Is there personal and medical assistance available 24 hours a day. Is there a daily call in system to assure residents well being? IF safety is a key concern for you as it is for most seniors then you may want to start evaluating assisted living facilities from this perspective.

2. Health The older you get the more health becomes a primary concern. When you evaluate an assisted living facility you will want to make sure that life at the facility will add to your overall well being. This means evaluating the dining arrangements. It helps to ask for a sample weekly or monthly menu so that you can make your own appraisal of how well it meets your nutritional needs and personal tastes. Because assisted living facilities cater to senior citizens, most facilities are keenly aware of the need to provide low fat, low cholesterol, low sugar and low salt choices and you will undoubtedly see these special choices on most well balanced menus. But your evaluation of an assisted living facility should include consideration of whether or not the choices offered are ones you are prepared to live with.

Evaluating an assisted living facility on the basis of its health components should also include a review of what on site health services and screenings are regularly offered through the services of visiting professionals. Are there regular facility visits by podiatrists? Are there provisions for blood pressure checks and assistance with maintaining blood sugar levels? What about help with drug services and reminders when medications need to be taken? What kind of assistance is made available to those who need to travel to and from doctors appointments?

The one health question that often is overlooked by those who are evaluating an assisted living facility has to do with the future. The way you are and the way you feel when you move into an assisted living facility is not necessarily the way you will always be and so an important question to ask is about your own future in the facility. Does the facility have more than one level of assistance available, are there wings to service those who develop Alzheimer's or who develop medical problems that require nursing home level care? What are your options? Knowing these things in advance makes the future more secure and the present less frightening.

3. Maintenance Many people begin thinking about moving to an assisted living facility when maintaining their own home begins to become and overwhelming task. Therefore when you evaluate an assisted living facility it makes good sense to give thorough consideration to all the maintenance issues that you want to lay aside You need to be assured that if anything goes wrong with an air conditioner, your electricity or your plumbing the only tool you will need to use is your telephone to call for maintenance assistance. This part of your evaluation can benefit from a quick survey of a few current residents of the facility you are evaluating. Hearing directly form people who have tried to obtain maintenance assistance will probably satisfy this part of your evaluation. You may think twice about signing on if you become convinced that maintenance is unreliable.

4. Size and Activities Once you finish your consideration of safety, health and maintenance issues, your evaluation really becomes a matter of personal taste. Size for many people can be a deal maker or deal breaker. For some a small, intimate venue with a limited number of residents that tends to be quiet and uncluttered is an acceptable reproduction of their existing lifestyle and will be an agreeable choice. But for other personalities there is a real, almost urgent, need for a larger community of personalities to help buoy and entertain on a daily, or almost hourly, basis Your evaluation of an assisted living facility in this regard really rests with your knowledge of yourself. In which setting are you going to feel most comfortable, at ease and at home?

Your evaluation of an assisted living facility should also lead you to consider what activities are offered in the facility. Assisted living facilities today seem to offer a full daily schedule of activities . But your evaluation in this area should be more qualitative than quantitative. If every hour of the day is filled by activity in which you are totally disinterested then the absolute number of activities should count for little in your evaluation. But if the schedule of activities includes a number of personal favorites then not only will you find things to do that you enjoy but it is likely that you will find a number of people with similar interests who will add an element of pleasant companionship.

5.Location and Expense Your evaluation has a practical side of course. You need to consider in what geographic area you wish to relocate and what expense you can reasonably shoulder. All thing being equal, people generally like to stay in familiar surroundings and pay a reasonable fee. But often everything else isn't equal. Your evaluation can help you to resolve a considerable balancing act. You want to stay in a facility that effectively manages security, health and maintenance issues for you but only you can decide if you wish to choose those things over living within easy visiting distance of your children and grandchildren. Will you chose those things even though the price, though one you can afford, seems out rageous?

Evaluating assisted living facilities thoroughly will help you to logically consider the pro's and con's of available facilities. But in the end only you can turn your evaluation of assisted living facilities into a decision making tool. Only you know what is ultimately important to you and what you are not prepared to bargain away.