What Types of Assisted Living are Available?

Although they all tend to offer the same kinds of services, there are several types of assisted living to consider when looking at residential options for older adults. All assisted living facilities will have shared dining facilities, and staff to do cleaning and laundry. They will also arrange regular visits and consultations from trained medical staff, as well as out-of-hours or emergency care where this is needed. Most will also offer help with certain aspects of personal care when required.

Within these parameters, though, there are still fairly wide variations between different types of assisted living. The most obvious differences are of scale. Some types of assisted living developments are very large, housing more than a hundred residents in each complex. These have obvious benefits in terms of the level and quality of services they can provide to residents, and also score highly in respect of the range of social activities they are able to provide, from bowling nights and poker games to trips to theatres and local places of interest. On the other hand, some older adults may find such large facilities to be a little intimidating, or lacking in character; it all depends, ultimately, on personal taste.

Conversely, many types of assisted living are much more modest and homely developments, sometimes housing only a few residents, but by the same token often allowing them to form closer personal relationships and receive a better quality of one-to-one support from the staff. Additionally these smaller facilities often allow residents to remain closer to their own neighborhoods, which can often be an important factor when choosing types of assisted living for yourself or loved ones.

If staying at home is the preferred option, in home care for seniors can also be a good alternative to assisted living. In this situation, the person continues to live at home and is served by helpers or companions who come to the home to perform assigned tasks. This can range from helping with household chores, home maintenance to companionship. In dementia cases, an alzheimers caregiver can also be provided by the home care agency to relieve the burden on family caregivers.