There is such a wide variety of senior housing out there
that it can be very confusing. There is
subsidized housing, assisted living, life-care communities, and retirement
communities.
Long-term care facilities and Alzheimer’s facilities will be found
under Nursing Homes. What you need will
depend on several things: finances,
state of health of person to be placed, and services needed. Generally, if your person has the funds,
they can live just about anywhere that is appropriate for their needs. If funds are limited, you will need to check
out what will happen when the person can no longer afford to pay the fees. In many cases, this would involve some sort
of public assistance such as Public Aid or Medicaid and not all sites accept
such assistance. Medicare does not
cover custodial care and is only an option for a very brief time for nursing
home placement.
For out-of-state inquiries, contact your local senior
center and/or the area agency on aging.
Some counties have a centralized resource for senior services and you
can find them in your local telephone book.
These sources will have the most up-to-date information for your area
and should be able to give you some direction.
Now for a brief description of each type of housing:
Subsidized housing is usually a HUD building which
will cost 30% of the senior’s income and the senior must be able to live
independently initially with some family or hired assistance, as their health
needs increase. There is usually no
assistance for activities of daily living.
There may be some recreational programs available. The focus is on independent living. There may also be some state assistance
programs available, which would cover privately owned property. In some communities, there is private
assistance available in apartment complexes that designate a certain amount of
private subsidy rental units would be available as part of their agreement for
building their development in the community.
In Illinois, state assistance is called Section 8 housing and Section
2560. Most states have some form of
state assistance for housing.
Assisted living is fairly
new on the scene. It started about 10 years ago when the
nursing homes started pretty much eliminating a class of care called
“Sheltered”. This type of
housing
combines residential housing with supportive services such as housekeeping, a
meal program, laundry and light housekeeping.
Some medical services are may be included, or if not, can be contracted
for by an outside provider such as bathing assistance, medical checks,
etc. Recreational activities may also
be included or available for an additional cost. There are a variety of levels of care and services available that
revolve around activities of daily living (ADLs). In Illinois, while public assistance is becoming available, most
of the facilities at present are private pay.
Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC) offer
lifetime housing at a cost. There may
be an initial outlay of cash, sometimes called an entrance fee. Check to see what happens to this fee if the
person is no longer able to remain in their apartment. Also, if the apartment is purchased, what
happens to the equity after the person is no longer able to live there. Does the initial
investment revert back to the CCRC or does it
go to the family.
CCRCs usually start with independent living apartments, but
not always (some may enter as assisted living). The person may then move to an assisted living section that will
provide
supportive services to help that person maintain a fairly independent
lifestyle. If the person’s health
further deteriorates, there is usually an attached nursing home section to
which they can move. There are
for-profit and non-for-profit communities and a wide variance in fees and
amenities. The big benefit is that the
person can remain at the one location throughout the remainder of their
lifetime.
Retirement communities offer many alternatives
and come in all sizes and shapes, with a variety of services available. Their main focus is on an active,
independent lifestyle but many of the communities have moved into offering some
auxiliary health services such as doctor hours, health care agencies and health
screenings, medical reminders and so on.
They usually stress activities and recreational features. Most are private pay and, in Illinois at
least, I don’t know of any that take any form of public assistance.
Some other helpful web sites are:
Caution: The
following sites all have information but are limited to what they have put on
their lists and may not include all of the housing options available for any
particular location.
AAHSA – limited help
Assisted Living – search
CCAL
Extended Care –
limited help and watch the range of the searches
Friendly 4
Seniors – takes some scrolling and has limited information. Not easy to search but better than nothing.
Senior Housing
Senior
Alternatives - magazine with housing options listings
