Wisdom Wednesday: Aging Wisdom's Podcast
Welcome to Wisdom Wednesday, a short, bite-size podcast offering weekly wisdom and insights for aging well, caring well, and living well.
One of our favorite tools for getting a baseline on long-term care costs is the Genworth Cost of Care Survey. We stress median costs, as our experience as geriatric Care Managers is that LTC costs more than the median reflected in the survey. But again, it’s a great place to start to get a realistic picture of costs, options, and levels of care.
Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs), also known as Nursing Homes, are for individuals that have ongoing health or medical conditions that require constant care and supervision or need rehabilitation following a hospitalization.Skilled nursing services focus on medical care.
Adult Family Homes (AFH) are residential homes licensed to care for up to six non-related residents. They provide room, board, laundry, necessary supervision, and necessary help with activities of daily living, personal care, and social services. The adult family home model has created a space for people to get a high-level of care, but in a comfortable home-like setting. AFH are especially wonderful for residents who would benefit from more one-on-one support and a calmer environment.
Memory care is specifically designed to provide a safe, supportive, and structured living environment, be it a stand-alone community or a separate unit within assisted living or a CCRC.
We like families to understand the high as well as the low range of fixed costs and care cost in planning. As we age, care needs often change, and it’s helpful to anticipate the factors that impact assisted living costs because the price structure is dependent on the level of care that a resident requires.
Assisted Living is housing designed for individuals who need support with various levels of personal and medical care. Assisted living can benefit those needing assistance with transferring or functional mobility (transferring from bed to wheelchair, for example), showering or bathing, toileting, dressing, personal hygiene, and meal preparation, as well as medication management, housekeeping, laundry, transportation, and socialization.
Today Nicole looks at Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs), also known as Life Plan Communities. “This is really an option for people who are at a stage in their life where they’re proactively planning ahead. Maybe they’re ready to downsize. They’re attracted to that retirement lifestyle, relatively healthy and independent.”
How do you pick the right long-term care housing option? Focus on the true care needs of your parent, or your spouse or partner, or yourself. Look at what is needed in the short term, and also consider how the situation may look and change over time. You need to factor in the finances too.
When we meet with families and start to talk about care and housing options, it’s not unusual for them to ask if Medicare covers what we are recommending. Typically, the answer is no.