Assisted Living vs. Nursing Homes: The Key Differentiators

If we look back a couple of decades, we’d see that various elderly care services were often bundled under the umbrella term ‘nursing home’ without much thought. However, that has been updated as more diversity has varied how seniors live their lives. Today, assisted living facilities are considered distinct and separate from nursing homes. To better understand the differences as it affects health and lifestyle considerations, here are some key differentiators.

Assisted Living Improves Lifestyle

While there are differences between assisted living communities that operate using their sets of rules, programs, and ideologies, there are some broad commonalities. For instance, the assisted living in St Louis County at McKnight Place includes senior assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing too. Also, there are therapy and wellness programs to help residents to remain more active and feel happier.

Rather than being isolated at home, seniors can participate in organized activities, while often being freed from cleaning and cooking duties, or needing to go shopping each week. Wrestling the shopping bags into the car and driving safely back home becomes much harder as the years tack on.

Independence is Not Lost with Assisted Living

For aging parents who are independent and dislike the idea of going into a home, assisted living communities can provide a solution to the problems they’re experiencing while not sacrificing anything.

Moving a hot pan of water across the stove or taking a pie out of the oven can be too heavy for a senior. Whenthey misjudge the situation, they can get scolded. Bathing and taking care of themselves can begin to become tough to do when bending down, kneeling, or moving around unaided.

Assisted living facilities have trained staff who can help to bathe and get them ready for the outside world. Often, they retain a home of their own too. As a result, an assisted facility can enhance their life rather than constrain them.

Nursing Homes Provide Ongoing Medical Care

Nursing homes are equipped to provide a reasonable level of medical care and treatment. In this situation, the senior has sufficient medical problems that regular assistance or intervention from medical staff is required. At this point, a nurse that might periodically visit their home is not enough. The care they require is beyond what he or she can reasonably be expected to provide. Seniors in a nursing home will stay in a group facility, rather than in a separate home. This makes it easier to centralize medical care as required.

Nursing Homes Bridge the Gap Before Hospital Care

Nursing care does become something where a degree of autonomy and independence is lost. But it has become necessary to offer round-the-clock care as and when it’s required.

With hospital care, the senior becomes an in-patient for ongoing treatment for various illnesses or chronic diseases. As such, they may go into hospital and then return to a nursing home when they’re well enough to do so.

The idea with an assisted living facility, nursing homes, and hospital care is that each provide different levels of support for their daily lives, ongoing medical care, and when needed, in-patient treatment for a serious illness. Assisted living provides the greatest independence coupled with easier daily living and some degree of nursing assistance as needed.