Senior Assisted Living
Senior assisted living is a way for elderly Virginians to receive care services. Many seniors require care to help them with personal tasks of self-care, to help them tidy their homes and manage their lives, and to help them with mental health challenges. Seniors can receive this care in their own homes or they can move to special facilities where caregivers care for them. Assisted living communities are a type of senior living facility.
Assisted Living Vs. Nursing Homes Vs. Independent Living, Etc.
Not only are different assisted living communities different from one another, there are different kinds of senior care facilities that help seniors with different needs. Nursing homes focus on seniors with high-level needs. Such seniors often need around-the-clock supervision and cannot be expected to make meaningful decisions about their care all on their own.
The staff at an independent living community, or retirement home, typically doesn’t provide any care directly to the residents. Instead, the staff takes care of chores such as landscaping, maintenance, and the cleaning of common areas, and sometimes personal units. But if residents want to receive personal care or companionship, they’d have to hire an outside agency.
Assisted living aims to strike a balance between these other two types of care. Assisted living communities are for seniors who need some help but who can also manage their own lives to some degree. These communities encourage the independence of their residents. Other senior living facilities focus on seniors with specific conditions, such as those recovering from strokes or those who have been diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Assisted Living Can Be Quite Expensive.
Many residents of assisted living communities are happy there. However, it is a communal style of living, and some elderly Virginians don’t like that. Others love their homes and don’t want to move out. Lastly, in-home care is almost always more affordable than assisted living. Senior living communities charge rent and fees that typically add up to much more than simply paying for the in-home care services you want.
