When you are looking at supportive living facilities for a loved one, there are a few things that you need to look out for; friendly staff, clean facilities, healthy meals and more are all apart of finding good assisted living homes. If you are planning on putting your loved one into residential assisted living then here are a few tips of some out of the box thinking that might help your parent or family member to enjoy their time in the nursing homes.
Activities
This is anything that the supportive living home offers for residents to do. It could be learning something new like an instrument or art classes, or it could be low impact sports, zumba, dance lessons, pottery, concerts and more. Take a look at the list of activities that are offered and ask your loved one if there are any that interest them. Taking in to account their opinion will ensure that they are getting into a facility that they will like and enjoy their time in as well as showing them that their opinion is important and needed in order to make a good decision about where they will live.
Amenities
Amenities and activities do overlap sometimes but activities refers to things that the residents can do and be apart of, like hobbies and amenities refers to what the actual grounds and facilities have to offer. For example, are the landscapes well kept and will your mother be able to sit outside with a cup of coffee and enjoy the sunrise over the rolling green hills or is her view going to be obstructed by city buildings and smog? Other than the grounds, you want to see what kinds of amenities are included in the price; are meals, activities and exercise included in one price or are they all priced individually? These are the types of things that you want to ask about before moving your loved one in.
Move Out Policies
This is something that not a lot of people consider. There are circumstances in which residence are asked to move out of the supportive living facility. You’ll want to find out what are the criteria under which a resident would be kicked out? Are mental illnesses taken into consideration? Are they given any notice? There could be several factors involved. You could request that the resident be given warnings an each warning accompanied by a call to you to inform you of the situation so that you could talk to your loved one and find out what is going on.
Personal Hygiene and Care
This is probably not something that should be discussed in front of your loved one as it could embarrass them that they need help with personal care but it’s important to find out what the procedure and protocol is for this process. Discuss bathing and using the restroom. This also includes grooming, such as hair cuts and styling and nail trimming. Find out if they ensure the residents are dressed properly if your loved one has a hard time dressing themselves sometimes.
Visiting Hours
Make sure to find out when you can visit and how long for. If you’d like to come for the entire day when you can or just for an hour or so when you are working or busy, the doors should be open to you. Or at least, you should know when the door are open.
Familiar Communication
One thing you’ll need to check up on at supportive living facilities is how often and for what they will contact you. You should write up a plan of when the facility should contact you so they have a clear cut idea of what a big deal is for you and what is normal. You don’t want to get freaked out over nothing but you want to make sure you’re contacted should something happen.
Knowing the answers to these things will give you the peace of mind to pick the right facility for your loved one. It can be a difficult time but having the right care will make things so much easier for you and for your loved ones at the same time. Once you know they are happy, then you will be able to rest easy again.
