By Mark Wright Thanks to assumptions, ignorance, and careless misdirection, our understanding of assisted living communities have become somewhat dubious. This is a big problem because it confuses the elderly, as well as the people taking care of them.
Retirement communities provide solutions to problems faced daily by seniors, but misinformation can make it difficult for them to see the communities as such.
Let’s set some of the more important things straight next by separating myth from fact.
Myth 1: Members will Lose their Freedom
Unless the Constitution is amended to enable retirement communities to own the elderly in a dystopian future, loss of freedom will remain an extremely impractical concern! There are only three instances where the adult citizen can lose their freedom, irrespective of their age.
- If they are in violation of the law.
- If they are in a medical emergency.
- If they are medically declared beyond all doubts to have lost the minimum sapience necessary for free living.
Therefore, a legal assisted living community cannot and should not stop you from leaving, taking a vacation, visiting others, going out, etc.
Those in charge will have certain rules in place for every member, of course, but they are no different from management rules that a landlord may have for his/her tenants, or a hotel may have for its guests.
Caregivers can and should make suggestions regarding activities in view of the member’s physical/mental wellbeing, but it’s not a prison and those suggestions are not orders!
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Myth 2: Members Cannot Change Anything about their Living Space
If you cannot redecorate an apartment and make it your own, how can you call it your home? The answer is simple enough; you cannot, and no decent senior living community should prevent you from doing so!
For example, check out the senior apartments at McKnight Place where they are highlighting this very fact.
Any redecorations that one may have in mind for a new place should be perfectly doable. It will be a lot easier as well because members are entitled to expect assistance with their redecoration efforts in an assisted living community.
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Myth 3: Assisted Living Communities are Nursing Homes
The assistance in an assisted living community is there to aid the members if and when they need it. Any managed retirement community should have a dependable foundation for handling regular and urgent medical conditions. It’s a necessary and positive aspect of living in such a place to begin with.
An assisted living community will likely have medical facilities such as nursing homes and clinics, but the community itself is not a nursing home for the elderly!
They are not sanitoriums, nursing homes, hospitals, or hospices meant for the mentally, critically, or mortally ill. Instead, the communities are designed to help the elderly live their life to the fullest, without ever lacking the medical aid they may need.
It should be duly noted that there is no assurance that every assisted living facility will live up to the expected standards or even meet legal requirements. Do your research, pay unannounced visits, and check the place out for yourself before shifting.