All About Residential Home Care
In some places, people call them adult family homes.
You may also hear them referred to as adult foster homes, personal care homes, group homes, or senior boarding homes.
However you may describe these settings, they all share a common goal: providing senior citizens with a home-like setting that has a family atmosphere.
This type of situation is ideal for senior residents who do prefer no to live in a larger community setting, but still require a level of attention in line with that offered by other assisted living facilities.
The staff often provide assistance with medication, bathing the seniors, dressing them, helping with grooming, and wide variety of miscellaneous daily needs.
The intimate settings that typify these homes mean site owners can often provide niche care or specialized assistance.
If your parent or loved one has a chronic condition, you may want to look closely at a specialized facility.
Quite often, specialty homes will offer a focus in needs like diabetes care, memory care, nutrition and dieting.
You can even find adult family homes that provide a cultural experience where the staff speaks the native language of the residents.
It will depend on where you live, but it's not uncommon to find Spanish-speaking adult care homes, or Japanese and Korean, among others.
Residential care homes offer more than just personal care, but also provide a chance for seniors to have fun, enjoy life and socialize with their peers.
Common activities for seniors include playing board games, folding the laundry, making cookies, and helping prepare a meal like lunch or dinner.
Transportation is often a part of the services provided by residential care facility.
This may include a visit to the doctor or other appointments, running errands, or fun outings like going shopping or to a senior center.
Residential care homes provide a lot of flexibility.
Some may even allow you to have a dog, cat or bird.
Most adult care homes charge by the month.
The monthly charge usually covers three daily meals, utilities, housekeeping, laundry, social activities, and sometimes the cost of transportation.
The cost of care will depend on a variety of additional factors, including but not limited to a senior's current health condition.
The owner or operator of the care facility will make an assessment of everything and quote you with a cost before admitting a senior as a resident.