Navigating Senior Housing Options is No Small Task
Take a positive step forward with this quick, easy guide from professionals who care. If you’re just getting started, consider this your primer on senior housing options — a go-to introduction to what’s out there and what may best suit the needs of your loved one.
Fill out the form to learn about:
- Senior housing options
- Types of residents
- Common amenities
- Average pricing
The Need for Senior Housing Options
Seniors' lives and needs tend to change as they get older. As an adult child, you may have already noticed some changes in your parents that cause you to think about the next steps. They could be struggling with where they live or showing signs that they could use support. Or you might want to plan ahead for the next stage. Either way, it's a good time to consider different senior housing options.
Many senior care options are available to older adults, helping to meet their needs at different stages. You can find senior living for active adults, as well as housing for older adults currently needing medical care or personal care on a regular basis.
Senior living arrangements also make it possible to transition from one type to another as a person's needs change over time.
Keep reading for basic information and comparisons of senior housing options. If you're ready for your copy of our comprehensive senior housing guide, simply fill out the form and download it now.
Residential Homes
Of course, older adults can live in a residential home rather than in a senior living community. This could mean that your loved one stays in the home they've been living in for a long time. If the neighborhood features mostly seniors who are aging-in-place, the community could be considered a naturally occurring retirement community, or NORC.
Rather than staying in their own homes, many older adults downsize to senior apartments or smaller houses that better fit their current needs. Alternatively, they could form a house-sharing living arrangement with other seniors, or they could move in with you or another family member.
Residential homes offer the same privacy and level of independence for older adults as independent living communities. Nonetheless, your family needs to take care of your parent's own needs in this form of housing, as it lacks independent living services and amenities that include meals, social activities, and staff on hand.
Care Level of Residential Homes
Residential homes are regular homes, so no specialized care is provided. If needed, your family could help your loved one, or you could hire in-home care for assistance with activities of daily living and skilled medical care.
Professional caregivers, nurses, and therapists can provide various types of care in a residential environment, with different options for scheduling to fit your family's needs and budget.
For instance, your loved one could receive:
- Personal care or housework through in-home care services
- Medication management, blood pressure monitoring, and other clinical or skilled care through home healthcare services
- Support services such as various therapies at home
Retirement Communities
Another senior living option is age-restricted retirement communities, often known as active adult communities or 55-plus communities. These communities are senior housing options because their residents are limited. For example, many retirement communities require residents to be 55 or older, and many require them to be retired or partially retired.
This type of retirement community may offer more affordable living and smaller units that involve downsizing, such as senior apartments or houses. Retirement communities vary but tend to include complete independence and may provide some communal spaces and activities.
Care Level of a Retirement Community
This senior living option doesn't include care for aging adults, although you could hire in-home care services for personal care, nursing care, and other professional support. Retirement communities are designed for active seniors who don't currently require medical or personal care services.
Group Homes
Also known as adult family homes (in some states they are called board and care homes), these are homes you find in a regular neighborhood rather than a senior community. They tend to provide a house-sharing arrangement with a communal living space for numerous residents to share. Typically, this option has a more intimate setting with a higher staff-to-resident ratio, and is usually focused on personalized care for a limited number of residents in a home-like environment. Nonetheless, your loved one would have their own room or a shared room within the group home.
Care Level of Group Homes
These homes have licensed caregivers to assist residents with amenities and services like meals and some activities of daily living. They are often limited to those with a cognitive impairment, so you'd need to look at the requirements and whether they fit your loved one.
Independent Living Communities
When considering senior living, many older adults start with independent living communities. Independent living is a good senior housing option for active older adults who don't require much care or support.
Residents live within senior living communities in senior apartments or houses that offer privacy and independence. Independent living housing tends to include partial or full kitchens and laundry rooms like a regular home.
Compared to aging in place in their home or retirement communities, independent living communities provide older adults with certain features and amenities, such as daily meals, social activities, and some cleaning. This option also removes the responsibility of owning their own home.
Care Level of Independent Living Communities
An independent living community is designed for active seniors, so it doesn't provide medical care, personal care services, or assistance with activities of daily living that are included with assisted living or some other senior living options.
However, if needed, you could hire in-home care services, such as skilled nursing care, caregivers, or other professionals. Another option is to transition your loved one to assisted living when the time is right, and many independent living homes make it easy as they are in the same community as an assisted living option.
Assisted Living Communities
An assisted living community features a bit less independence and extra care compared to an independent living community. This senior living arrangement still provides a good level of independence compared to a skilled nursing facility, otherwise known as a nursing home; it offers that middle ground.
Assisted living residents live in their own senior apartments or rooms, which gives them privacy from the rest of the community. They might live in a single room/apartment or one with a roommate.
Care Level of Assisted Living Communities
Here, your parents would receive extra care compared to independent living communities. Generally, assisted living provides support with activities of daily living, which include things like eating, bathing, and dressing.
These communities can also help manage a chronic condition or illness. They offer daily meals and provide a lot of opportunities to socialize.
Continuing Care Retirement Communities
As your aging parent's needs and care plan change, they may need to switch from one type of housing to another. Perhaps they were able to be more independent when they first moved to senior housing, but now that some time has passed, they require more assistance with personal or clinical care. This is common as people age and may need additional support.
A continuing care retirement community, or CCRC, makes it especially easy to transition from one type of senior living to another, as the same community includes multiple forms.
All on one site, residents can move from independent living to assisted living housing, memory care, and skilled nursing care, although the specific types offered vary by community.
This ability to transition means you wouldn't need to look for a new community if your loved one needed to go from independent living to assisted living or from assisted living to skilled nursing care.
You could continue in the same community, providing your aging parent continuity, consistency, and the same social network.
You may also hear continuing care retirement communities referred to as life plan communities. Most prospective residents of these communities didn't like the CCRC name when surveyed, and the life plan community better encompassed what they valued about these sites.
Unlike the first name, which focuses solely on care, the second includes the wellness and long-term planning aspects these senior living options offer their residents.
Care Level of a Continuing Care Retirement Community
Regardless of the name, these communities aim to provide a broader continuum of care than a single senior housing option. The benefit is that the same community includes varying levels of care, allowing your loved one to receive more or less care to fit their changing needs.
Therefore, they would receive less care in the independent living part of the senior living community, moderate care in the assisted living component, and most care in the skilled nursing facility.
Skilled Nursing Facilities
When your aging parent needs support beyond what the other types of senior housing can provide, you can consider transitioning them to a skilled nursing facility or nursing home. While these facilities generally offer short-term rehabilitation, they can also provide long-term care if needed, especially if the person qualifies for Medicaid.
So, it's an option for your loved one to live in one of these facilities temporarily, for example, while recovering from an injury or hospital stay, and then return to their typical senior housing environment. Otherwise, a nursing home could become a long-term housing option if your loved ones' care needs were significant.
The often temporary aspect of skilled nursing facilities is another benefit of continuing care retirement communities. If your loved one lived in the independent living or assisted living part of a CCRC and needed a short-term stay in a skilled nursing facility, they could move to one within the same community for their stay.
In skilled nursing care facilities, seniors generally share a room or have a private room within the same building as the other residents.
Care Level of Skilled Nursing Services
This housing option includes the highest level of senior care from a group of professionals, including physicians, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, social workers, and physical, respiratory, and occupational therapists. Nursing homes also include meals, personal hygiene services, rest, and activities that provide socialization and stimulation.
Memory Care Housing
Rather than choosing assisted living communities or regular skilled nursing care, if your loved one has Alzheimer's disease or dementia, you could look into memory care housing options. Memory care housing can be found in specialized communities for that purpose or within another type of senior living community that offers it.
This type of senior living provides long-term housing and care. In a memory care facility or unit, an older adult generally can choose from a private room or a shared companion suite.
Care Level of Memory Care
A memory care facility or unit is designed specifically for the needs of those with memory challenges or cognitive impairments. It supports personal care and medication management and ensures your loved one stays safe through its on-site security.
Its specialized care also offers mental stimulation, social engagement, and other activities that support residents' overall well-being. Staff in these settings are trained to meet the specific needs of seniors with cognitive impairments.
Whether you're considering independent living communities, assisted living communities, continuing care retirement communities, or another senior living option, our guide can help you determine which is best for you and your family.
Let Us Find a Senior Housing Option for You
CarePatrol’s senior care advisory services are available at no cost to you. Our local Senior Care Advisors are experts at finding the right senior care options so you can spend more time with your loved ones and less time researching all of the available options.
Download the senior housing guide for more information, or contact a CarePatrol Senior Care Advisor near you.
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