Planning for Senior Living: When to Look and Why

It’s common to have a lot of questions about senior living. Two of the most common questions? When to start looking and why to consider moving. We’re breaking down the answers to these questions and more. Plus, we’re talking about why you should know what you want in senior living before a need arises, how it can be good for your mental and emotional wellbeing, and ways to research communities, looking at their reviews and ratings. 

To find a skilled nursing facility's star rating, visit https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/?providerType=NursingHome

Chapters

• 1:15 Need Assistance with Daily Tasks
• 1:46 How does senior living help with mental and emotional needs and wellbeing?
• 2:48 Why might someone look at moving to a senior living community?
• 4:40 How to make a decision when searching for the right senior living community
• 7:18 Commonly Asked Questions About Senior Living
• 8:04 Importance of Talking to Residents and Staff when Touring a Senior Living Community
• 9:11 What are star ratings in skilled nursing?
• 10:08 Talk to your Friends

Transcript

0:05

Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Senior Living Today. With me today is Emily Hammond, community relations manager for Springfield Masonic Community. Emily, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you so much for having me. To get started, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and the role you play at Springfield Masonic Community? Sure. Well, I am a native to Springfield. I've been in the industry for about 28 years, and I am currently the community relations manager for Springfield Masonic Community, which means that I am out in the community meeting people, building relationships, doing events, and just creating creating that barrier between questions for senior living and the community. So I think one of the things in our industry that's fairly common is that, you know, choosing the best fit for a senior living community to move to can be a challenge. And, making the decision to move to a senior living community can be even harder knowing when that right time is. So today we're going to dive into some of the signs that it might be time to consider moving to a senior living community. And then how to know if it's the right choice for you or your loved ones. Let's start with the need for assistance with completing daily tasks. Emily, I know a lot of times we see individuals seeking senior living because they need help with their daily routines, or maybe they need some extra care provided. Can you share more with our listeners about what those needs might look like? So those needs might look like, you know, struggling with bathing, dressing, managing your medications, cooking, cleaning, yard work, all of the above, anything that is a daily task of living. So we also find that individuals are seeking senior living for mental and emotional needs and well-being as well. Whether that be isolation or maybe a desire for a social community. How can senior living help with these types of needs? Well, senior living is great because you can, you have everyone at your disposal, pretty much. You walk out into the hall, you can usually find a friend. If you can't, you've made friends. There's group activities that you can do currently. Here at Springfield Masonic Community, we have so many groups and so many committees, and we have an events committee. We have a sewing room, an art room, a woodshop. We have exercise facilities. And we are, we have very involved residents. So you can be as active, as involved as you'd like to be, but you also, you can stay in your apartment. No one is making you be social. So it's having people around and not being isolated. And then I think another reason we might see for people wanting to make the decision to move is actually just a change, maybe in their lifestyle, maybe they are at that point where they are looking to retirement and they want to sell their home and downsize. So can you talk about some of those other reasons that somebody might be looking to move to a senior living community? Absolutely. So downsizing is a big, a big thing that you want to think about when you are looking at communities. You don't need that stuff anymore. You know, a lot of people hold on to things and then they realize that they don't need it. So oftentimes, you know, clutter could be a concern. And to purge all those things is really good to do. And oftentimes you want to just downsize and get rid of things so that your family doesn't have to deal with them later. And if you ever have any questions about downsizing, we have people that you can, we can refer you to or we can help assist in recommendations as well. So it is very important that you make those those realizations so that maybe yard work isn't as easy for you anymore. Maybe you don't have family close by. Maybe you don't want to maintain your home anymore. All these things-you want to travel, you want to do, you want to go fishing all the time. All these things take away from your daily life. Doing all those chores per se. So those are some things that you wouldn't have to deal with anymore. And you can just live your best life here. Yeah, it's really a convenience factor. And giving you more time to do those things that you love, rather than trying to spend all time on the upkeep of the home and all those chores like you discussed. Yes. So now that we've gone through some of the common reasons that someone might consider a move to senior living, the next step would be finding the right community for yourself or for your loved one. So let's dive into some of the factors that should be considered when searching for the right community. Emily, what are some things that you've seen that are decision makers in searching for the right senior living community? So it depends on obviously what someone is looking for. It can be location. It can be services provided. It could be the grounds and the activities and the involvement and all the options that are given on the campus. Safety is a concern for older residents in the community. And here at Springfield Masonic Community, we have security that is on staff 24 hours a day, and there is always someone around. So that is a big comfort factor here for families and residents is that they're they're not alone. And there is someone to respond in case of an emergency. So it's great to make a decision before you have to make a decision. It may be if you're not ready right now, I would recommend that you go visit places and see what may be a right fit for you, a right feel for you. Because even if you're not ready this moment, there might be something that happens and you have to make a decision quickly, and it's best to have that all in the forefront of knowing where you want to go. The location. So that even if you can't make that decision, your family is aware of your decision and your choices and your wants and your needs. I think you brought up a great point about, you know, planning for the future and not waiting until you're kind of in a crisis mode to make that decision. And one of the ways that we can do that is to start gathering information now. So do you have any tips for our listeners when they are researching senior living options and what to look for? Maybe, as far as you know, looking online, reading reviews, things of that sort? Yes. I would start with online. You can always request information. Always tour a campus. I recommend that you call ahead because, you know, they might not be in the office. So those are all sorts of things that you can narrow things down with. It could be cost. It could be paying your utilities, all those things. So it's all...there are many factors that you need to consider. And it's not too late to ask questions. And there's no question that isn't reasonable to ask. Are there any questions that you commonly hear asked by either potential residents or their loved ones when they're inquiring or touring the community? A lot of people don't understand what a continuing care community is. They just assume that a retirement campus is just nursing services provided. And that's completely the opposite. We want people to come to a campus like a, like ours, which is a continuing care retirement community, that we want them to come and live their best life. So most people just are inquiring about all the services, what's included, the pricing, floor plans, and they don't realize that there's so many options. Absolutely. And I think another thing that might be beneficial when somebody is taking a tour would be to maybe speak with some of the staff that's at that community, or talk to some of the residents. I know at Springfield, you guys actually have some, like, resident ambassadors that will meet with potential prospects or new move-ins. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of maybe speaking to residents and staff in the touring process? Yeah, so when we're out touring, there's often residents sitting in the lobby or in the gift shop, in the sandwich shop, or at the ice cream parlor. So there's always questions that can be asked to the residents. And the residents will be truly honest with you. I've never seen the amount of activities in on a campus that I've seen here. And yes, stop and ask staff, do you love working here? Like, what are the benefits? Ask residents. And we do have ambassadors, and we do team up new move-ins with someone to welcome them and show them the ropes. So I would definitely recommend getting other people's opinions and just simply asking them on a whim. Yeah, I think that's absolutely great advice. Another thing that I know that we can look into is actually the star ratings for communities. So can you talk a little bit about that and what it means for communities that have a health care center or skilled nursing facility? Sure, there are different ratings and they go up to five stars and it is quite an honor. Luckily, we are five stars here at Springfield Masonic Community. And it has a bunch of different factors that go into play. It’s due to staffing, it's due to resident satisfaction. All of those things go into that rating. And for our listeners, we will include the link in the description for this episode where you can go to find those ratings for nursing homes in your area. Emily, I know that we've covered a lot of ground today. Is there anything that you can think of that we've missed, or do you have any advice for someone exploring their options related to senior living? I would ask your friends. Ask your friends if they live in a community if you can come see their apartment or their villa. We have all levels of care here on our campus. So we have villas, independent living apartments, assisted living, two different types of assisted living. One that you need less care, one that you need more. And then we have full care, rehab, and memory care on our campus. So no matter where your friends live on a campus, I would just ask them to come take a visit, maybe come for lunch. Have them show you around. That's a good thing to know if it feels right for you. Word of mouth is very important. So if you know people who are looking into other facilities, have a chat with them, see what they're thinking as well. I cannot stress enough that make a plan. Make a plan and look. Because like I said, people sometimes wait too long and then they don't have the option that they want. So I would recommend make a plan, make it with your family, do the research, take visits, and be open minded because there's a lot of things out there that people don't realize are available to them within the community. That's great advice. Being proactive and doing your research ahead of time so that when it comes time to make that move, you aren't in a crisis and you've weighed your options and really know what the best fit is for you. Emily, it was such a pleasure having you with us today. You shared some excellent information on things to consider when looking at senior living communities, and how to find the right fit for you or your loved one. So thank you again for joining me. Sure. Thank you for having me. For our listeners, please be sure to like and subscribe to the Senior Living Today podcast so that you never miss a new episode. And we will be back again in two weeks.