Saturday, October 02, 2010
Assisted living centers can often make a good transitional home for elders who no longer feel safe in their own homes, or who are so isolated at home that they are in danger of depression and other health issues.
Alzheimer's organizations consider socialization one form of possible protectio...
Hi Carol,
I realized that the new home where my father-in-law is has a different dimension and is not the traditional assisted living home. They do have nurse stations in 2 wings (one for mobile residents and the other one for people who need 2 caregivers to help out.) The doctor comes once a week. In a way, it is "nursing home" but it does not allow feeding tubes. Catheters are ok. If the residents get sicker and need dialysis and so on, I imagine he would not be able to stay. Fortunately my FIL only has heart failure and Alzheimer's and other minor problems. He can still walk with a cane. So he will probably end up in there for the rest of his life. This is good for him. If they tell us he has to move to an acute place, we would then move him even closer to be with us - just one hour maybe. Now it is 2 hours distance and it is still not as close so we go once or twice a month now.
Thanks for the post,
Nina
I wondered about that, Nina, as the facility seemed to offer way more than most assisted living. It's a great hybrid. There should be more like that!
Carol
It is a different model with nurses. Actually I never found a similar one in Chicago area. Maybe they have similar facilities but I never found any yet. This co. Benchmark has New England assisted living facilities in Maine, MA and VT and other New England states and it was set up 20 years ago. Not all of them at Benchmark are for Alzheimer's or memory impaired. That is why we like this one and reserved it immediately. We just need one home, not many homes. We are lucky that this one is near our place within driving distance. Chicagoland has many nice homes, assisted home or nursing home for memory units, but we never saw anything like this. I think nationwide, this model should be applied.
Regards,
Nina
You are so right, Nina. This is innovative and I would love to see this model spread around the country.
Carol
I think it depends on how many nurses there are. Where my father-in-law stays has only one nurse on each wing with shifts. That means there are many nurses on different shifts. But only one nurse each wing at one time. The nurse givens the residents medications and makes sure the residents are OK. The resident care director is a RN also. The line between assisted living and skilled care probably is defined by the number of nurses and the medical services they offer.
NIna
Good thought, Nina. State laws may have something to do with that, as well.
Carol
Hi Carol,
I checked with my FIL's new home. The administrator told me this is a residential care that offers more than assisted living home's part-time nursing care, but it is not skilled care nursing home that provides extensive care such as feeding tubes or IVs.
I think this kind of care if important for dementia care nationwide. Of course, this model is meant for mid-stage dementia and later stages. Early stage does not need this kind of care.
We are glad we found this one by accident - it is well-known locally.
Nina
It sounds like a gem, Nina. I wish there were more. Thanks for checking!
Carol