Nearly all Americans fear getting older and it’s no wonder with all of the things to worry about that come with age. If you’re wondering “can I find a facility for assisted living near me”, thankfully the Seminole, FL area has some great options. Before you choose one, you should get to know what separates the wheat from the chaff in the world of assisted living.
Here are five things you should definitely look for when choosing the right facility.
1. Easy Transportation
One of the most basic things you need when choosing an assisted living facility near Seminole, FL, is to make sure it’s easy to get to. Some family members want to be able to get to their loved one easily via car, public transportation, or taxi. The facility you choose should be easy to get to.
In some cases, one spouse will be in a facility while the other continues to live at their home. If this is the case, the independent spouse will want to be able to visit the senior in assisted living. You should make sure that it won’t be too hard for your other parent or the other spouse to get to and from the hospital.
If you find a place that’s located downtown, you need to make sure there’s always parking available nearby. Sports events or community fairs could block off the streets and stop you from seeing through plans you made with your loved one.
Make sure there’s always a way to get to your loved one, rain or shine, all throughout the week.
2. Fully Accessible
Even if you sign up your loved one when they’re in good shape with a lot of vitality, you never know when they could get hurt. A slip and fall accident could make it hard for your loved one to get around. Even if they fully recover, they should be in a facility where it’s easy to get around, no matter what your abilities are.
Check that every building is fully accessible, with wheelchair ramps, working elevators, and automatic door openers. If you find that some of the most important buildings on the site haven’t been made accessible to people with disabilities, you need to look elsewhere.
When elderly people have trouble getting around, they may not go out as much because it’s inconvenient. If they don’t get out as much, they could risk getting depressed. Elderly depression is serious business and the last thing you need to do is to court it with a place they could end up feeling isolated at.
3. Great Service
One of the most important things to have an assisted living facility is a good staff that knows how to offer great customer service. At the end of the day, your loved one is a customer of the facility they’re staying in. IF they’re not being treated well from the moment they meet the staff, it’s time to turn somewhere else.
The staff should offer personalized care to every resident and be trained to meet their individual needs. If your loved one has a special routine recommended by their doctor, the staff should be eager to learn it for the sake of your loved one.
You should be able to reach anyone at the assisted living facility. If you try to contact the supervisor of the facility your loved one is at and you can’t get ahold of them, that’s not the facility for you. If the facility you were considering bringing your loved one too can’t make time for you, imagine how it will serve your loved one.
Elderly care is a sensitive thing. It requires a lot of kindness, empathy, and nuance to make elders feel valued, listened to, and not talked down to. It also requires time and if you go with the cheapest facility, the first place they’re going to cut back on is staff.
4. Specialized Care
The assisted living facility that you send your loved one to should be able to offer specialized care. There should be doctors on site at all time and staff who is trained and certified at providing care. They should be trained on all the basics of CPR and first aid so that in case of an emergency, your loved one will be in good hands.
There also need to be specialists on hand at the facility. As mentioned above, mental health care for the elderly is a serious issue and so the staff at the facility should have a deep understanding of that. There are also special issues that affect people as they get older, including memory problems and even a simple flu.
While most people bounce back from the flu, it gets harder as we get older and so the facility that you send your loved one to should take special precautions to keep their residents from getting sick
5. Connected to the Community
It’s important that the facility you choose is connected to the broader Seminole, FL community. There should be events where younger kids and school classes come into work on projects with the people in the facility.
There should also be health fairs, concerts, and parties that are just for the residents of the facility.
The events calendar at the facility should be jam-packed with events that residents are being brought to, whether by foot or by bus.
Scratching Your Head Over Assisted Living Near Me?
If you’re still in Seminole, FL asking “now how to do I choose the right assisted living near me”, then you need to start making calls. Set up some interviews where you can ask the questions you have a hunt until you find the facility that has everything you’re looking for in assisted living.
While looking for a facility, check out our guide so that you can help treat your loved one with some of the symptoms of memory loss.
