Financial information online: The good, the bad, and the just wrong
Financial professionals offer calm and clarity as clients seek financial guidance online.
Key Takeaways:
Elder care planning, which includes long-term care planning (LTC), is something many people think about as retirement closes in. However, too many people just keep thinking about it and don’t act. One reason for a delay in planning may be the belief that long-term care means “ending up in a nursing home”. While the majority of individuals will receive care at home – at least for a while – at some point a decision to move on to facility care may become necessary. One common concern is, what is the difference between assisted living vs. nursing home care?
It’s no wonder people are confused. Nursing homes have been called numerous things over the past half century. I remember watching old movies with my mother, and seeing scenes of elderly people who lived in a “home for the aged”. My mother was the guardian of her uncle, my great-uncle Oscar, who had no children of his own to help him. We would go visit him at the “rest home”, which is what nursing homes were often called back in those days. Today, these facilities are generally referred to as nursing homes or skilled nursing facilities (SNF).
What is the “official” difference between nursing homes vs. assisted living? In a nutshell:
Differences also center around medical services, living space, help with activities of daily living, social activities, meals, and cost. We will compare the differences between these two types of facility care.
Nursing homes still carry a stigma with many as being a place where individuals go towards the end of their life when they can no longer take care of themselves—with little to do except watch television in their room and wait for a visitor or for the next mediocre meal to be served. Fast forward to the 21st century, and we find the nursing homes of today have come a long way! In addition to patients who need both medical and personal care on a 24/7 basis, nursing homes are also now short-term rehabilitation facilities where individuals are cared for following surgery, illness, or injury. Services may include physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.
Assisted living was developed in the 1980s specifically to provide care in a residential environment where individuals would remain safely independent, retain their dignity, and be treated as residents—not as patients. Residents have private quarters with doors that lock and 24-hour staff to handle medical emergencies.
In the past, individuals who could no longer remain at home to receive care had no other option but nursing home care. That is exactly why my Mom’s uncle, my great-uncle Oscar, resided in a nursing home. How wonderful it would have been for him to have had the option of care in assisted living.
Determining which care service a person needs may simply be a matter of how much medical assistance the individual requires. Assisted living provides options that can extend independence, social interaction, and dignity, as well as the comforts of home living with your own furniture and possessions.
Many years before needing care for dementia, my mother told me to never get rid of her favorite pair of yellow chairs. She had them for nearly 60 years and recovered them four times! Unlike her Uncle Oscar, my mother was fortunate enough to have the option of assisted living and taking her favorite possessions with her. She passed away peacefully on her own sofa in her one-bedroom unit, also furnished with that pair of yellow chairs. My mother is gone now—but I still have those chairs.
Genworth Cost of Care Survey, 06/02/2022
NFM-21226AO.1