March 31, 2020—Assisted living can be a promising option for seniors who need or want residential care but wish to avoid the institutional environment that most nursing homes provide. The promise of assisted living is, fundamentally, to provide services, safety, and monitoring in an environment that enables residents to maintain independence and choice in their lives. Unfortunately, those promises can be difficult to achieve.
To help achieve the promise of assisted living, in 2005 LTCCC, in collaboration with the Coalition of Institutionalized Aged & Disabled, developed a series of guides for seniors, care staff, and assisted living management. Today we are pleased to announce the release of updated Assisted Living Guidebooks which we have revised to reflect current circumstances for both seniors and the industry.
The guides, which are free to use and share, are available at https://nursinghome411.org/assisted-living-guidebooks/. They are:
- Considering Assisted Living? Strategies for Prospective Residents & Families. This guide was developed to help seniors and their families find a residence where they can achieve the quality of life that they want.
- Maintaining Independence & Choice in Assisted Living: A Guide for Residents. This guide was developed to help residents check how much their assisted living community supports their choices and independence. It offers ways to work with staff and other residents to improve quality, if needed.
- Fostering Resident Independence, Choice, and Decision-Making in Assisted Living: Strategies for Owners & Managers. This guide was developed to help owners and managers by examining potential assisted living challenges and solutions. It will help them evaluate their communities to see how well it fulfills the promise of assisted living for residents and identify ways they may wish to improve.
- Encouraging Independence, Choice Control, and Decision-Making: Ideas for Direct Care Staff. This guide was developed to help care staff better understand and work with residents. The guide includes cases and scenarios to help them assess their own work and identify opportunities for improvement.
The guidebooks for prospective and current residents include brief questionnaires that can be helpful in identifying personal needs and priorities. These questionnaires are also provided in separate downloadable files on the website page. Seniors and families can download the questionnaires to their computers and mobile devices or print out and take copies with them to visits and meetings.
Additional Resources. For more information about assisted living, including fact sheets and webinars, please visit our Assisted Living webpage.
Long Term Care Community Coalition
www.nursinghome411.org
One Penn Plaza, Suite 6252
New York, NY 10119
United States
