Evaluating Options for Assisted Living

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What is assisted living? The term describes options to foster independent living for persons who need help with some facet of daily living—such as bathing, medication, or cooking—yet do not need 24 hour nursing care.

Evaluating options for assisted living starts with determining what kind of help is needed. The following resources provide several checklists to use for the decision making process including deciding on a facility.

Assisted living—How much assistance can you really count on?
This report from Consumer Reports is the result of a three-month investigation. It describes how difficult it can be to pick an appropriate assisted-living facilty.

Assisted Living Checklist from Aging Parents and Elder Care includes a worksheet for Finding the Funds for Assisted Living and Choosing a Facility.

AARP’s Housing Choices section has these resources:

• What is Assisted Living Housing? provides a general description of the services and benefits.
• Assisted Living: Weighing the Options provides a general description of the steps to follow before making a decision.
• Caring for Those You Care About: Housing Choices is an online seminar that explains the types of facilities and the services they may offer. It provides a step-by-step guide for checking out a facility.
• Assisted Living Facility Evaluation Checklist is a pdf file that can be downloaded and printed out.

Planning Ahead: A Consumer’s Guide to Assisted Living Facilities from the American Health Care Association National Center for Assisted Living discusses the various facets of assisted living. It includes a cost calculator and several checklists.

Your Guide to Senior Housing is provided by the New York State Office for the Aging. This guide has descriptions of the types of housing that are available and developments that provide them.

Prepared for Corning Credit Union by Remar Sutton & Associates, May 2005. Reviewed and updated May 2007. All rights reserved.