Assisted living concepts are meant for seniors who require help with their personal care and typical daily activities but at the same time they want to retain their independence. As people get older it becomes difficult for them to take proper care of themselves. They might forget to take their medicines or they might be unable to take their bath. However, they are still fit enough to manage their business and carry on with other day to day activities. Under such circumstances, assisted living facility is the best option.
What Is Assisted Living?
Assisted living facility provides care for seniors who just need little help with some of their daily activities. On the whole, they want to retain their independence. Assisted living concepts are basically the middle area between independent living and nursing homes.
Assisted living facility usually provides a room or a small apartment, meals, personal care and support services, social activities and 24 hour supervision. Some facilities also provide health related services.
An assisted living facility can be a small house with only few residents or a high rise apartment building with several hundred residents. Some facilities offer a single room, while others offer a complete apartment.
Today assisted living concepts provide personal care to seniors. In other words, they help them with eating, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting and getting around.
Services Provided
Most of these facilities also provide the following services:
• Community activities like, golfing, social events, outings, etc.
• Laundry and cleaning services
• Medications and nursing care
• Taking care of both emotional and physical health
• Independent living facility
Cost
Assisted living facilities offer proper care for seniors; however, they are quite expensive. On an average it costs around $3,200 to live in an assisted living facility. This is around $100 a day. Moreover, Medicare does not cover assisted living care. So before you look for an assisted living care, you must consider whether you can afford it or not. And also keep in mind that the cost will only increase in the future due to increasing cost of living. Moreover, as the needs change over a period of time so would the cost.
It is true that cost of living in assisted living facilities is high; however, when you compare the cost of staying at home, you would not find much difference. When calculating the cost of living in a home, many people forget to take into account the cost of food and miscellaneous expenses. The cost of living in an assisted living facility includes food, rent, utilities, 24-hour security service, health services, housekeeping, lawn care, property taxes, repairs and maintenance, trash removal, entertainment and social activities. So when you look at all that is provided at an assisted living facility, the cost does not seem so high after all.
Fact is that, as people grow old they need help. Without help the quality of life is going to get worse. Assisted living concepts are designed to provide a quality of life that the seniors might not have if they were living alone. Besides improving the quality of life of its residents, assisted living facility gives its senior residents the independence they yearn for.
The fact that seniors living in assisted living facilities enjoy a great amount of freedom only adds to their overall well being. They have their independence while they are being properly taken care of. They are living with people who are in their age group, thus they are able to enjoy their social activities. Overall assisted living facilities add quality to the life of your loved one.