Assisted Living Placements Blog

In our first installment on large assisted living communities, we covered quite a bit of ground.  In general, we should now know about costs, services, strengths and weaknesses and layouts.  In this episode, we will continue this education, by looking more deeply into these subjects.  We will explore a day in the life of a resident at a typical large assisted living community.

When a resident awakes to a new day in an assisted living community, they wake in their bed.  Remember, these are apartment communities and residents bring their own furniture.  Of course, the apartments are generally studio, one bedroom or two bedroom suites, so in most cases our new residents will have been downsized from a large home, but what they maintain is all their own.   In most communities our resident is responsible for making their own bed (if they want it made).  They may opt to have community staff make the bed for them but this usually entails an additional monthly charge.  Once a week, when the apartment is cleaned the sheets will be washed and laundered.  This service is included in the base fee.

Now for our residents morning.  Remember, a very rough statistic puts about 50% of residents at physically independent.  This means that, for these residents, they are free to spend their morning in any way they want.  They can get up, take a shower in their bathroom, maybe make a cup of coffee, get dressed, even make breakfast if that is their desire.  Of course the opposite side of this coin is the 50% of residents that do need assistance in the morning.  Care giving staff can provide little or much morning care.  Resident might need simple standby assistance while in the shower for safety or they might needs help getting out of bed, into the shower and getting dressed.  Our resident can choose how much care they need, but remember, the more one on one time with care staff, the more their monthly charges will be.

Breakfast.  As we mentioned, residents are more than welcome to make their own breakfast.  Almost all assisted living apartments come with a kitchenette, and many even have a full kitchen.  However, at all assisted living in California, three daily meals is part of the base fee.  So our resident can make their own meal, but they are still paying for the meals in the dining room that they do not eat.  If our resident does not feel well they can have “tray service” brought to their apartment.  Sometimes there is a charge for this service.  Today, our resident feels fine and is going to the dinning room for breakfast. 

One important thing to note and plan for is the trip to the dinning room.  In some cases the dinning room will be very far from the apartments.  If it is troublesome or dangerous to make this trip without help, escort service can be established, for an additional monthly fee.  As we have discussed previously, meals are served in the communal dinning room, which is usually run, restaurant style.  Services staff will take orders and deliver meals.  Some communities have assigned seating, at others you sit where you want.  Many dining rooms will have buffets and salad bars.  If it is difficult for the resident to utilize these amenities, the service staff can help. 

Breakfast is done.  No dishes for cleaning to do today.  Our resident is free to do what they will, and there are many choices.  They can join with any number of scheduled activities that are put on by the community.  These activities are part of the base fee.  There might be trips to casino or beaches (gambling money not provided!)  There will be arts and craft classes, card tournaments , walking clubs, any number of great activities.  Perhaps our resident has a doctor appointment.  They are welcome to take their car or the transportation provided by community.  In fact the community can even schedule doctor appointments and order and dispense medication, but of course, there is an additional monthly fee for this service.

More about transportation.  This service goes beyond trips to and from doctor appointments.  Transportation can also be established to malls, banks, stores and movies.  The transportation is usually very liberal.  Normally, it just needs to be scheduled in advance.

Half our day is down, and we will continue the day at another point.   This is enough to digest for this issue.  Our next episode will take up here.  Until then, Kindest Regards.