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Retirement Home Options Offer a Wide Variety of Services
By Robin Kalmek
If your helping your loved on making the decision, when it comes to choosing a retirement home, there are a wide variety of options, available for just about every situation, and offering a wide variety of services. For those seniors with serious health problems that require a high level of care, there are long-term care facilities available, all of which offer round the clock medical care.
Long-term care facilities are known by various names (e.g. nursing home, municipal homes for the aged, or charitable homes), depending on where you are and what services they offer. These facilities are for those seniors who require on-site delivery of supervised care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The overall cost for these facilities usually includes basic furnishings, such as a bed, housekeeping, bedding and laundry services; medical and clinical supplies, such as walkers or wheelchairs; personal grooming services; meal services, and laundry and housekeeping services. Also included are a variety of programs and activities for residents, to keep them as active as possible, and to aid in their socialization with other residents. Optional services are usually available, sometimes for an additional fee, such as telephone service, cable television, transportation and beauty salons and barbers.
Different municipalities have different rules and different standards. In Ontario, for example, long-term care facilities are required to prepare a “plan of care” for each resident in their facilities, which outlines the care requirements and services offered. These plans must be revised quarterly and adapted to changing needs.
For seniors who require some care, but who are healthy enough to maintain a greater level of independence, assisted living facilities can be an excellent choice. Assisted living retirement homes can range from very small homes to large campus-style communities. They typically offer a wide variety of planned activities and assistance, which allow them to tailor services to a senior’s individual needs. Usually, they offer residents prepared meals three times a day, and assist with light housekeeping and laundry. Some communities offer access to a fitness center and/or swimming pool, a beauty parlor, and local transportation. Communities also tend to plan activities and trips that residents can participate in that can range from casino trips to happy hours to concerts to museum excursions. Many assisted living communities even allow pets, so long as the senior is physically able to care for it.
Assisted living facilities offer residents a higher level of independence than long term care facilities. While they can assist residents with such tasks as bathing, dressing, or going to the bathroom, they tend to do so on an as-needed basis, as long as round-the-clock care isn’t needed.
Services often include:
Social Programs:
In all homes a large variety of "activities programs" are available to all residents. These programs consist of a general set of social, recreational and motivational activities for the residents to be a part of
Medical Care:
A general supply of household medicine is always available. Seniors homes keep stocked up on non-prescription medical care, hair, skincare and dental hygiene products. In-house doctors can prescribe specific medicine.
Transport:
Trained employees, capable of handling residents with physical impairments, fulfill transportation services. Residents get around town with the use of medical vans and taxis. Vehicles typically carry a stretcher, emergency medical kit, linens, and oxygen equipment.
Therapy:
Trained specialists in occupational and physical therapy are offered by most homes for all its residents, assisting with injury or mental challenges.
Food and Diet:
Doctors are expected and required to prescribe certain meal specifications to residents, depending on their needs. Seniors homes are expected to accommodate these specific diet plans with the help of an on-site professional dietary supervisor and expert.
Hospice:
A hospice service provides the best possible medical care and maximum support to residents who are experiencing the difficulties and stresses that emerge out of the last stages of sickness.
Senior housing facilities vary widely in their available programs and services. If you do your research, you should be able to find a retirement home with services that meet the individual needs of just about any senior.
