Valuable Details To Confirm Before You Select An Assisted Living Facility For A Family Member
Posted on: 14 June 2017
If you have an elderly family member who has expressed interest in moving into an assisted living home, you can play a helpful role by setting up appointments at multiple facilities in the area. Visiting each assisted living home with your loved one will allow you to assess the environment, ask questions and, in general, get a sense of which home feels best. There are a number of critical details to confirm before you make your decision. You may wish to take notes at each facility so that you can compare a variety of criteria as you and your loved one make the decisions. Here are some details that you'll want to confirm.
Staff To Residents
While you'll likely think to find out how many rooms and residents the assisted living home has, you may forget to find out about the ratio of staff to residents. There's no magic number that you want to hear — you just want to look for the facility that offers the best ratio. In this case, you're looking for a high number of staff members. If the ratio is too low, which may be the case if there is a shortage of staff, your loved one may fail to receive the care he or she needs. Conversely, in a facility with a higher ratio, you can count on staff being there to support your loved one in every needed way.
Additional Care
Many people move into assisted living facilities because they want help with some things such as cooking and cleaning, but are otherwise able to live independently. Over time, however, residents may need more care. As such, it's valuable to determine what levels of additional care are available. For example, there may be a separate wing of the facility to which residents can relocate when they need more care. This situation can be favorable than having to completely move into a different facility when the need arises.
Degree Of Privacy
A big advantage to moving into assisted living is residents' ability to make friends and spend time with each other. However, some people may enjoy being social but still favor having their own space. It's useful to confirm how much privacy each resident gets. For example, residents should have their own room and bathroom. If your loved one enjoys his or her space and solitude, you may even want to find out if meals can be offered in the rooms, rather than strictly in the dining room. Visit http://www.vvrconline.org to learn more.
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