Assisted Living
A community of seniors who live everyday life with a helping hand.What Is Assisted Living?
Assisted Living is a type of housing that includes nursing care, housekeeping, and meals for elderly or disabled people. Some of the key features of assisted living include:
- Building is secured in the evening at a specific time, after hours family and friends may be buzzed in or given a key
- Generally 3 nutritious meals are provided daily
- Flat linen laundry services weekly
- Light housekeeping weekly
- Daily medication management
- Wellness Nurse for oversight and if needed, to set up medical appointments
- Offers assistance with the all of the following if one requires:
- Bathing
- Dressing
- Grooming
- Toileting and or incontinence care
- Transfer assistance
- Supervision with walking
- Activity program
- Transportation for shopping, medical appointments and outings
Who Would Benefit from Assisted Living?
Anyone who requires assistance with 1 or all of the items below.
- 3 nutritious meals daily
- Needs reminders and encouragement to drink water
- Medication Management
- Daily tasks of dressing, grooming, bathing takes too long (according to family) or even takes hours.
- Laundry is difficult or one of the major events of the week.
- Social isolation
- Lack of activity or involvement in leisure activities
- Benefit from 24 hour supervision or care when and if needed.
Going The Extra Mile
As times goes by, tasks that were once easy to accomplish can become more challenging, while for some, even hazardous. Daily tasks like preparing 3 nutritious meals daily, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, taking medications timely or needing some help with dressing and grooming can be overwhelming leaving the seniors in potential harm and isolated from their peers. Offered in this supportive environment of 24 hour security and supervision a daily curriculum of leisure and exercise activities along with transportation to appointments and shopping promotes and encourages residents into a vibrant and healthy lifestyle enabling them to find new friends, re-engage in old leisure pursuits or finding new ones, which creates a positive quality of life for them and peace of mind for their loved ones who oversee them.
In short, the old worries, burdens and even hazards of living alone becomes a notion of the past as the seniors establish new lifestyles that embrace rewarding and enriching activities with the support of compassionate trained staff. For families of their loved ones, it gives them peace of mind knowing that their elderly loved ones are receiving the attention, care and leisure opportunities that contribute to their fulfilling lives at this stage of needing more help.
Who Is Assisted Living For?
Assisted living is for those seniors who are struggling with their daily lives with preparing nutritious meals daily. For others it’s for those that need assistance with their personal care needs or medication management. For many others, it could be just the need for the seniors to be freed up from the chores of tending to their laundry and housekeeping or needing transportation to appointments and shopping, or just being in a safe and secure environment where care staff are available 24 hours daily. Then there are those older adults who have moved into assisted living simply because walking outside onto unlevel ground to retrieve their mail is too much and hazardous for them.
When seniors are struggling with the myriad of tasks above then it’s time to consider assisted living. A lifestyle only focused on completing tasks leads to isolation and often a more sedentary lifestyle deprived of stimulation and exercise. Moving into an environment where supportive staff are available while socialization, leisure, exercise and intellectual stimulation are offered daily promotes joy, camaraderie longevity for those residents.
The Basics, And More
What can you expect in an assisted living environment? Assisted living communities are a supportive environment that have caregivers 24 hours daily that can provide light or heavy assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) which include meals, help with bathing, dressing and grooming, toileting, transferring assistance or supervision with walking, and continence care. In addition, medication management is offered while a Wellness nurse may be onsite 40 hours weekly or more who oversee residents health issues and can schedule physician and clinic appointments as needed while the community offers transportation to those appointments. Along with all of those services a curriculum of leisure and social activities are offered both in and outside the community for the residents’ enjoyment.
