When someone is looking for senior care options, the term “assisted living” is commonly misunderstood and used as a “catch all” phrase for those researching the next phase of their retirement. They might actually mean an active adult retirement community, nursing home, skilled nursing, a continuing care retirement community, or something else entirely.
In order to compare apples-to-apples and find the right senior care solution, it’s important to understand the jargon.
In this article, we’ll be comparing assisted living with a nursing home and other levels of care. Â
Assisted living solutions fall between an independent living community of active adults and a nursing home with 24×7 medical care. Assisted living requires a higher level of personal care than someone living in their own home might need, yet licensed on-site medical care is not necessary.
Assisted living facilities are considered a wellness environment promoting independence and getting back to the same quality of living enjoyed before the emergency situation occurred.
“Assisted living communities are licensed facilities providing 24-hour certified caregivers. This is different than a nursing home or skilled nursing facility, which offers medical care around the clock.”
Assisted living services may be provided in someone’s own home through a non-medical caregiver service, yet the term assisted living generally applies to a live-in community or facility. It can be as small as a few residents in a single family home, or an apartment or condominium setting with hundreds of residents.
This is different from a nursing home (also called a skilled nursing facility), which provides 24-hour medical care on a short- or long-term basis. It is a sub-acute care environment, which is different than the wellness environment of an assisted living facility.
A nursing home or skilled nursing facility may or may not offer memory care, which addresses the specific supervision and medical needs of those with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. A memory care facility may not offer other skilled nursing services outside of its memory care specialty.
Do assisted living facilities offer skilled nursing?
Because they are separate levels of licensure, assisted living facilities cannot offer skilled nursing services; they use home health agencies to provide for continuous nursing care or may allow residents to bring in outside skilled nursing services. However, continued care communities (such as our very own Grandview Terrace or La Loma Village) offer a full spectrum of care on their campus.
Who Requires Assisted Living?
Assisted living for seniors is typically a non-emergency need that is planned when someone has an increased need for help with activities of daily living.
Skilled nursing, however, is usually related to an unplanned, urgent need, often with the end of a hospital stay or surgical procedure as a short-term solution. Perhaps your wife fell and broke her hip or an elderly parent is recovering from a stroke, so they are relying heavily on a wheelchair or walker for mobility and struggling with normal daily tasks. These type of situations would be handled by skilled nursing professionals.
Assisted living needs can be an expected part of the aging process, when health changes leave you unable to perform activities of daily living or declining health leaves you dependent on others for care.
Either way, assisted living is not usually an interim solution; the senior needs help with normal daily tasks such as bathing, dressing, cooking, cleaning and taking medication.
Are they also defined by state license requirements?
Types of Arizona assisted living facilities are based on the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) and its related licensing programs are as follows: supervisory care, personal care or directed care.
Supervisory care at an assisted living facility is when general supervision is required, along with the ability to intervene in a crisis and provide medication management services. Staff at the facility monitor residents’ health and safety through awareness of their daily functioning.
Personal care services at an assisted living facility is when hands-on help is required by caregivers. This includes intermittent caregiver services for daily tasks such as bathing and meals, intermittent physical assistance, and oversight of self-administered medication by a licensed nurse.
Direct care services are ongoing support where physical support and supervision is required. It includes programs and services to those who are incapable of recognizing danger or summoning assistance, and making basic daily care decisions. This often includes memory care facilities caring for residents with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Facility sizes (by ADHS license) can include adult day care centers, adult foster care homes where care is provided for up to four people in the home where the caregiver lives, assisted living homes which care for up to ten people, and assisted living centers which provide care for eleven or more people.
In Summary
Senior facilities can vary widely in what they have to offer. Be sure to ask questions about the different products and services provided on-site and how they apply to changing needs when researching retirement community options.
You should have a full understanding of what is available and what you are paying for BEFORE you make a decision.
