What’s The Difference Between Assisted Living & Nursing Homes?

Each and every one of us is probably already familiar with nursing homes, as many United States families typically move their aging loved one for permanent rehabilitation or long term care in to a nursing home. But in the early 1990’s a new form of senior living was created, which is now known as assisted living facilities to give seniors and their families a better option over nursing homes. Depending on where you live, you may know assisted living by a different name, such as:

Senior housing

Retirement living home

Adult living facility

Elder care housing

Nursing homes provide what is known as skilled nursing care for seniors that need around the clock medical attention. Such as elderly persons that have some type of chronic medical condition that require 24 hour skilled nursing care, whether it is for short term recovering patient that were recently discharged from a hospital or for patients that need long term care for nurses.

Assisted living is really for senior citizens that can no longer live independently at home and now require help with some or all of their daily living activities. Assisted living will provide these types of seniors with a safe, warm, peaceful and homelike environment, that offers them socialization with like-minded seniors where they can form new relationships with other senior citizens and have a balanced lifestyle while improving their emotional, mental and physical condition.

Typically what you will get from a nursing home are:

Medication management

Personal care

Skilled nursing

Meals

Board

Recreational and social activities

Assisted Living Communities provide seniors with the following:

3 meals per day

Transportation

Security

Recreational activities

Medication management

Laundry

Housekeeping

Monitoring and care management

Long term care patients at a nursing home will receive assistance with getting in and out of bed or chair, toileting, eating, dressing and bathing. These services are also offered to residents that have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. A nursing home is a secure facility that provides services that can meet the social, medical and physical needs of their patients.