How to Successfully Place in Assisted Living and Memory Care

I've been helping families find the best fit for Long Island Assisted Living, Memory Care, and Independent Living here on Long Island for more than six years. Each year I help over 1,000 families make some important decisions around the selection of a community (a building) for their loved one. Here is the most important thing I've learned: The decision around where to place a senior should be multifactorial, yet it is often decided on a single factor. These single factors vary a bit, but making any complex decision based on one factor can cause longer term issues.

Here are the five factors that my experience shows are most important in making a placement decision. You may decide to give more or less weight to these factors but giving too much (or too little) importance to any one of them can lead to problems.

1. Care
2. Future Care Capabilities
3. Cost
4. Location
5. Overall Environment

1. Care

Care is the industry term for personal care support activities performed by aides, supervised by nurses. These activities include medication management, showering, grooming, and assistance with ambulation. This is the initial match. For example, your mom propels herself in a wheelchair and needs a person to help transfer her from the bed to the wheelchair. Does the community being considered do this readily, as part of day-to-day work for multiple residents, or would it be more of a stretch given the overall staff levels and type of residents in a community?

Understanding the level of care available at assisted living communities is crucial to ensuring your loved one receives the support they need while maintaining their dignity and independence.

2. Future Care Considerations

Future Care Considerations are an extremely important and typically overlooked consideration. Most of the conditions that affect seniors are progressive. These include dementia, arthritis, CHF, heart issues, diabetes, and others. At Assisted Living Locators of Long Island we have been champions of evaluating the underlying conditions affecting any senior, working to understand the likely care needs of that person 18-24 months in the future, and guiding families to consider communities that can provide the Care needed both today and the likely care needed in the reasonably predictable future. In fact, we have come to consider a reasonable focus on future care needs as one of the most important 'professional value adds' we offer as placement professionals. Don't 'place' seniors in a community that meets only current needs. Plan for their likely future care needs, too.

For families dealing with progressive conditions like dementia or Alzheimer's, this forward-thinking approach is especially critical. Communities that can transition residents from assisted living to memory care services provide better continuity of care.

3. Cost

Cost is, of course, very important. Senior Living on Long Island can be quite expensive. Here are a couple of tips to make this consideration a little less daunting.

First, when you are looking at the first Assisted Living community that your loved one might be placed in, don't choose the last community your loved one might need. If you choose a community that, for example, matches your loved one relative to independence of care and overall activity, this more active and less care focused community might be less costly than other, 'higher care' focused buildings. And that's good. Save money while you can! Choosing a community that seems like a solid Care choice for 18-24 months can sometimes put you in a less expensive category, at least for a couple of years. And your loved one gets to be in a more active community while they are more active, too.

Second, it often happens that as a senior declines a LTC facility can be an appropriate option. LTC communities are, generally, covered by NY State Chronic Medicaid. So if a senior's resources are substantially used up in more active and upbeat Assisted Living while they are able to enjoy it, some relatively short period at the end where they have used up their resources and require a LTC facility paid for by Medicaid is probably the sign of smart financial and Care planning.

4. Location

Location is important, and at the same time it is probably the factor most often given too much weight when choosing a community. Visits from family are critical for the residents of Senior Living. At the same time, though, choosing a community mainly (or solely) because it is close to family sometimes eliminates a more appropriate community just a few miles further away. Sometimes, seniors too, will want to be very close to their current home. While this is a solid strategy for some very active and healthy seniors, the reality is that most residents of various types of senior living are going to spend most days inside their buildings or on group outings with other residents of their building. Choose the community for multiple factors, including but not solely on location.

Whether you're looking in Nassau County or Suffolk County, remember that the quality of care and community fit should be your primary considerations.

5. Overall Environment

Overall Environment is a way of describing the 'look and feel' of a building, the finishes in both public spaces and in the apartments, the activity level of other residents, cuisine, level of inside activity and outside trips, staffing levels, and all the other factors that go into answering the questions like Does this seem like a good fit for mom? Long Island has 90 Assisted, Memory, and Independent buildings, and the trick is to find a place that meets location, cost, care, and future care requirements - and feels like home.

Finding that perfect match where your loved one feels comfortable and at home is what makes the difference between just a placement and a successful transition. This is where working with an experienced placement professional who knows the Long Island senior living landscape can be invaluable.