Nursing Home Choices

Selecting a nursing home is never easy, since there are many options for long term care for most seniors and many families are leery of placing an elder in an unknown professional care situation. While there is no cookie cutter approach which will guarantee that a family will make the right choice, there are certainly many considerations which should be weighed carefully when selecting any eldercare facility, including a nursing home, assisted living center or other type of senior residence.

First of all, it is crucial to understand the difference between the various types of senior housing and care centers which are available. Nursing homes are at the more comprehensive end of the care spectrum, as they provide around the clock services for elders who truly require assistance with all or most of their basic activities of daily living. This level of care far surpasses that found in domestic care situations, assisted living facilities and other general senior residences. To put it simply, nursing homes are for seniors who can not or will not take care of their basic necessities in life, including those who suffer from serious mental and physical health issues, such as Alzheimer's disease.

Once a family confirms that skilled nursing care is the best choice for their loved one, then it is time to go about finding the best facility for their individual circumstances. It is always best to place elders with special needs into a facility where those needs are commonplace and subjects of specialized care. Basically, for Alzheimer's sufferers, the facility should be noted for AD care and offer the best possible practices for these difficult cases. Similarly, for patients with other physical or mental impairments, the same rule applies, regardless of the whether the circumstances include physical disability, such as confinement to a wheelchair, the need for rehabilitative services for strokes or the individual attention demanded by cancer patients...

The family should always go to visit several of the best institutions in their area and consult with the home administrators for detailed information about care protocols, restraint usage, quality and variety of medical services provided, access to auxiliary services and many other pertinent factors which will help in choosing the best facility.

Once the field has been narrowed down to include only the best candidates that can provide the type of care demanded, then another lengthy list of ratings criteria comes into play... These include a great variety of considerations to take into account, ranging from the geographical location of the facility, to the visitation policy, to the menu offered, to the governmental rating enjoyed, to the forms of payment accepted... There are far too many variables to be detailed in a short article such as this one, but the full list of criteria used to choose the ideal nursing home for your needs can be found on the free website listed in the resource section of this page.

In summation, the process of attaining the need for nursing care takes a lifetime to achieve... The decision to place an elder in a nursing home is not easy and should never be made without careful consideration. However, when this is the right choice, the selection of the exact facility should also take time and effort. Rushing the process can have dire consequences for the senior, including being subjected to subpar living conditions and possibly even becoming victim to nursing home neglect, or the far worse, nursing home abuse...