When you search for “assisted living facilities near me” the results can be overwhelming. You see the many options and some of them look like they are very similar.
Our parents have helped us throughout our lives from learning to walk and talk to getting us through college. We want to make sure that we give them the best care available.
Continue reading this article to learn how to choose the best assisted living options for your loved one.
Determine Your Parents’ Needs
Before you reach out to any assisted living facilities, determine what needs these facilities need to cover. Knowing your parent’s abilities and the areas where your parents need the most help will allow help you throughout the rest of the search.
Make a List of Potential Matches
Once you know what you need, look at the available assisted living facilities near you and see which ones offer the services you need. Once you have all of these listed, you can start looking at the pros and cons.
Make a List of Pros & Cons
After you’ve narrowed it down to a few choices, make a pros and cons list to help you decide which assisted living facilities you want to tour and interview. If you have too many cons, you should drop that facility from the running. These facilities are meant to make your life easier and if there are too many drawbacks, it may end up doing the opposite.
Do an In-depth Interview
When you’re doing the interview, you should already have a list of questions that you want to ask. Preparing the questions before the interview will make sure you don’t forget something important. Here are some questions you might want to ask when you’re interviewing the facility’s staff.
- Can I see a list of the rules and regulations?
- Can residents come and go as they please?
- Are there medical professionals available on-site at all times?
- What would get a resident removed from the facility?
- How much are all the fees combined each month?
You likely have your own list of questions but these can help you get your wheels turning.
Make the Decision
Once you’ve gone through the above process, it’s time to make the decision. While it might be difficult to make these types of decisions for your parents, if you know they need help, it’s the best thing you can do.
Avoid These Common Assisted Living Mistakes
There are some common mistakes people make when they are choosing an assisted living facility for their parents. Read through the following mistakes so you can avoid them.
Choosing a Location You Like Vs. What Your Parents Like
You might walk into a facility and absolutely love it. It looks and functions the way that you want it to and you feel like it’s very cozy.
While it’s good if you like the facility, if your parents don’t like it — don’t go for it. You’re not going to be the one that is going to live there and you need to make sure that your parents are at ease with the decision.
Choosing a Facility That Doesn’t Fit Your Parents Current Needs
If your parents have certain needs but you choose a facility that doesn’t yet offer these services, you’re going to make life hard on yourself. You may think you’ll be able to come and help with these areas, but life can get busy fast.
Make sure the facility you choose can help your parents in their current situation and if they can help in their next stages of life, that is even better.
Making a Decision Too Quickly
When you are looking for a good place for your parents to live and get help, you might want to make this happen as quickly as possible. Your parents might be in a nursing home and no longer need that level of care or they may just be getting out of the hospital.
Depending on the situation, it may be more urgent than others but it’s still not good to rush your decision. Make sure you go through the process we outlined above — going to the tour and asking questions.
If you make a decision too quickly, you may find that you have to relocate your parents because the location turns out to be a mismatch.
Failing to Read the Fine Print
If the facility you’re considering isn’t forthcoming with their terms and other information — run. Make sure to ask for all of the terms so you can go over them carefully.
When you don’t read the fine print, you might miss fees or rules that you didn’t think about. When your parents are on a fixed income, you’re likely to have to pay some of the expenses for their assisted living arrangement, so making sure you know how much money you’ll be paying is important.
Finding the Best “Assisted Living Facilities Near Me”
Now that you’ve begun to make heads and tales out of the results you find when you search for “assisted living facilities near me”, you can make a good decision for your parents.
Maybe you have some questions or there’s something else we can help you with. If you’d like to find out about our facility and see if it might be a good fit for you, be sure to reach out.
Visit our site and schedule a tour today. We will be glad to see how we can help you and your loved one.
