How to Modernize Your Approach to Evaluating Senior Care Options

Most families don’t even consider senior living an option until there’s a crisis. Mom has a fall, or wandering, or forgets to pay the electricity bill, or gets lost driving home. And then it’s full-on panic mode. Too often, we let circumstances dictate our next steps. Thousands of families realize they have crossed that bridge too late and have a few bad options from which to choose. They end up making quick, emotionally charged decisions that often lead to acute-care placement, long transitions, and wide-ranging regret.

Start before you think you need to

The most significant change families can make is to be proactive rather than reactive. Most people start exploring senior living after a fall, a hospitalization, or a sudden downturn. But then you’re in a crunch, making a choice under the gun, facing a discharge deadline, and you haven’t had time to research your options properly.

A fresh approach has you starting 6 to 12 months in advance of when you believe it’ll be time to move. That time frame allows you to research and find options while you still have time to choose, compare communities, and most critically, to engage the senior themselves in the process. When there’s no urgency forcing the timeline, the entire conversation and focus changes.

The AARP Public Policy Institute observes that about 70% of all Americans who make it to 65 will require some form of long-term care in their lives. It’s not a statistic that justifies panic. It justifies a plan.

Understand the care continuum before you start comparing communities

A lot of the confusion about this whole topic is that you probably don’t know what you’re looking for. Independent living, assisted living, and memory care aren’t just varying levels of services and care – different people are best suited for each.

Independent living suits seniors who are able to live on their own and who want to downsize their home and yard while adding a sense of community and access to resort-like amenities. Assisted living is that next step after Independent living, taken when help with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) such as bathing, dressing, or help with mobility becomes necessary or will likely become so soon. Memory care is for individuals with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.

What many fail to recognize is that a lot of today’s buildings operate under a “continuum of care” method. For example, one facility offers independent housing, assisted, and/or memory care all in one building. A resident can move from one type of care to another with only an elevator ride if they wish. This is often referred to as Aging in Place, a massive improvement over the old model.

Use digital tools to do your homework first

It’s not always feasible to visit each and every community of interest. The silver lining is that today you can get more details upfront before actually making a visit.

A lot of communities provide 3D virtual tours, which are more informative than just looking at pictures. The state licensing boards also make available the inspection and compliance reports of registered facilities – this information is out there and will reveal details that a salesperson might not. Resident review websites give you direct insights from other families who’ve made this decision.

Take advantage of these resources to shortlist your options. Then make visits with more informed questions and a clearer idea of what you are comparing.

Look past the lobby

Communities invest a lot of money in first impressions. The lobby, the dining room, the welcome packet – it’s all meant to wow touring families. Fine, but none of that is the info you need to know if someone is truly cared for.

The numbers that matter are less obvious. Staff-to-resident ratios are how you know whether there’s actually time for caregivers to be with residents. Staff turnover rates are how you know whether the people there are engaged or burning out. The depth and breadth of social programming each day – not just bingo and movie night, but classes, outings, volunteer opportunities, and events reflecting real resident interests – are how you know how seriously a community takes the quality of life.

Social isolation is one of the biggest health risks for seniors who live alone. A well-run community actively fights against it. A poorly-run one throws in a standard meeting with an activity calendar each month and crosses it off a list. Ask to see six months of programming, not just what’s on this week.

Why local expertise beats a national directory

National senior care referral services sound good. But in reality, they do their best to match you with whomever is the source of their placement referral payment, not the place that’s the best fit. They can’t let you know a community changed ownership two years ago and things have gone downhill since. Or that a smaller facility three miles away has a waitlist for a reason.

Local expertise is different. Certified senior living advisors MN work in a defined part of the state, have ongoing relationships with all community directors in the area, and can tell you what’s REALLY happening – not what’s in a national database. This kind of information can’t be garnered from a call center.

Keep the senior in the conversation

One thing that is often forgotten is that the senior is not just the object of this decision – they are the subject. Making decisions about their future without their buy-in, no matter how benevolent, can create real trauma. The experience of having control stripped away is a frequent source of angst associated with the move to higher levels of care.

A functional assessment by a healthcare provider can assist in clarifying the level of care truly necessary. After that, decisions regarding residence should incorporate the individual’s preferences for community culture, geography, amenities, whether they love or hate cats… You get the idea. It’s not a minor detail. It’s the whole ball of wax.

The goal isn’t to find a place to stash an old person. It’s to find a community they want to join.

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