Picture it: The year begins with ’19’ and you’re going to visit a senior friend or family member. They no longer live at “home”. What sort of place are you driving up to? When you step inside and look around, what do you see? How does it feel?
Depending on how familiar you are with senior living, there’s a good chance we could have kept our question tied to the present day and you still would have pictured a nursing home. This is because for many people, the idea of what senior living looks like has changed very little since the 80’s and 90’s, when skilled nursing was nearly the only option.
If you visited a senior living community today, you’d find that life after the age of 55 has been transformed.
In the last 10 years alone, there have been great strides and advancements in senior living. For many seniors considering the move, a common concern is the loss of their independence. A move to senior living, however, can actually provide opportunities for seniors to hold onto more of their independence, instead. If that seems counterintuitive, let us break it down.
There are four main types of senior living communities:
Often times, the latter three offerings get lumped in with a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) when they really all serve different purposes for different lifestyles and needs. Here’s a quick rundown of each.
Active Senior Living – A 55+ neighborhood geared toward the active lifestyle, many with offerings such as golf courses, swimming pools and clubhouses, plus a variety of housing options to choose from.
Independent Living- a community for seniors 55 or older, looking to make a move to an environment that allows access to additional resources. (Dining program, housekeeping, events/activities, home maintenance, and access to transportation).
Assisted Living- A 55+ community that offers the same resources as independent living, plus assistance with daily needs at the ready. This option provides an around-the-clock team to assist with things like dressing, personal care and medications, while still offering seniors many ways to enjoy their independence.
Memory Care- a community for seniors requiring specialized care due to memory loss from things like dementia and Alzheimer’s. Care is tailored to each senior’s changing daily needs, with an emphasis on safety while still offering a full, active lifestyle, and is provided by a trained team of caring professionals.
These four senior living options provide great variety and opportunity for any senior to find a community that suits them. Modern senior living communities are expanding their classically care-based models to incorporate vibrant social-based models as well. While care is still provided to residents as need changes, the communities focus on the mind, body, and soul of residents, providing a fulfilling, well-rounded daily life at every point on the care spectrum.
You’ll no longer need to worry about grocery shopping, cooking, maintaining the yard, getting a ride to your doctor appointment, or what happens if you have a fall. Senior Living now offers the chance for you to enjoy a busy social calendar of events where you can make new friends and participate in a wide range of activities.
Seniors are finding a proactive move, rather than one taken during a time of crisis or urgency, allows them the chance to choose their next step with informed purpose. If you are interested in learning more about the new look of senior living, give us a call. We’ll talk you through it.
We’ve found there are two questions that come up a lot when people are considering a move to senior living:
1. How’s the care? Of course, you want to make sure you’ll be receiving the best care and have the peace of mind that you or your loved one is well looked after.
2. How’s the food? This is such an important part of the day! It’s an opportunity to enjoy a meal in a social atmosphere and interact with other residents.
It’s important that a community’s wellness department is able to provide the highest levels of care by staffing according to individual care needs and by creating an individualized care plan for each resident. By doing these two things, they’re sure to give the resident the best possible experience and set themselves apart from the competition.
On the culinary side, communities offering all-day dining are able to offer residents a level of independence that other Senior Living communities can’t. Most Senior Living communities offer structured mealtimes throughout the day. If you can’t make it at the scheduled mealtime, you won’t have access to the full menu. That’s not independence! If I’m up late, I don’t want to be in the dining room at 8:00 AM. I want my omelet at 11:00 AM!
When restaurants are open from 7:00 AM until 7:00 PM, residents are welcome to help themselves whenever they’d like. It’s important that all meals are cooked to order, not scoop & serve. That way, it’s not just like a restaurant – it is a restaurant! And the quality of food that comes out of the kitchen? I’d put it up against any restaurant in town!
Were you one of those people that had a misunderstanding of what Senior Living really is? Does the lifestyle explained here sound more like a cruise ship than a nursing facility? If you have any questions, please fire away! Arrow Senior Living communities are glad to talk with you and invite you to visit so you can see for yourself exactly what Senior Living really is.
To learn more on this topic: Independent Living vs Assisted Living
