“I am not ready yet.” Illustration courtesy of, “Your Senior Housing Options” book.
Every single one of us knows a senior who is struggling in their home. Some seniors silently suffer and others have a whole network of support from family and friends.
Daughters may call their mom once a day to inquire if her senior parent is okay OR no answer could mean they fell again and need help.
Result: Senior falls often lead to fractured hips, 911 calls, skilled nursing care with physically therapy and needing 24/7 care.
A son may set his senior parent up with medications in a pillbox and then call two or three times a day to make sure his parent has taken them.
Result: This can be effective until the senior says, “What are these pills for? I don’t want to take them.” Most family members are not there in person twice a day to make sure the senior ingests the pills.
Kind neighbors may make an extra plate of dinner every night and take it to their senior neighbor.
Result: Neighbors get frustrated and burned out, spending every single night away from their own family for one year or more. This type of support can’t go on and on.
Daughters may spend every other Saturday cleaning mom’s house, grocery shopping and setting up her senior parent to survive for another two weeks.
Result: Even if the daughter lives two hours away, this type of help eventually turns into every Saturday. If the daughter works full time, it can never be daily help, then what?
What is the answer to a senior struggling to manage in their home?
Result: It’s time to talk turkey with a senior.
There are five typical results in having “The Talk” with a senior:
Denial: “I am just fine living in my own home. I am not ready yet.”
Shutting down: “I don’t want to discuss this.”
Anger: “Why are you questioning my ability to be independent? Leave me alone.”
Confusion: “Don’t you want to come see me everyday? I don’t understand.”
Acceptance: “I understand that I have become a burden. Maybe it’s time to look at what my senior housing options could be. I am tired of being lonely. Will you help me look?”
In my 17-year senior housing career, my teams and I have helped thousands of seniors improve the quality of their life by making a planned move into an independent living, assisted living or Continuing Care Retirement Community. No one ever chooses memory care or skilled nursing, but those are options for many seniors (like my own in-laws) who waited too long and ended up in a health care crisis. Both my in-laws were hospitalized simultaneously in different hospitals and both their doctor’s told them they needed 24/7 care and could not return home. There was so much unnecessary suffering in my family and I don’t wish it on anyone. Such as my mother-in-law with dementia being given psychotropic medications (they don’t mix well). She has never been the same. Maybe my experiences can save you from a senior health care crisis?
Next week my blog will feature: 7 Tips to have “The Talk” with a Senior.
If this article struck a cord with you, please share it on social media to help others. If you have a friend or neighbor going through a struggle with a senior, let them know about next week’s blog.
Give the gift of knowledge: “Your Senior Housing Options” is an easy read with illustrations. It walks seniors and their adult children through the costs and pitfalls of navigating senior housing and includes the chapter on the “7 Deadly Sins of Searching for Senior Housing Options.”
News Flash: Diane Masson’s new interview on Generation Bold Radio will broadcast on Sunday, December 6th on the BizTalkRadio Network syndicated to 33 stations across the country.
Diane Masson is a senior living expert who has authored two 5-star rated books sold through Amazon. Her new book is an all-encompassing answer guide for seniors called, “Your Senior Housing Options,” designed to help seniors navigate choices quickly. The second book was written for senior living professionals called, Senior Housing Marketing – How To Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full. Reach out to her through her website: Tips2Seniors.com and read the weekly blog.
What should this senior couple do? They sold their home that they could not manage any more and decided to move into an independent rental retirement community in Orange County, California. The couple has an income of $3,600 a month, but their monthly rent is $5,200. (The senior couple’s rent includes three meals a day, wellness classes, entertainment, housekeeping, transportation and etc.) So $1,600 is taken out of their savings for rent on a monthly basis, plus they still have to pay for telephone, Internet, hair styling, car bills, pharmaceuticals, insurances and possibly even gifts and travel.
This senior couple is just one example. Their plight is not uncommon. Thousands of seniors are concerned that their meager savings are eroding too quickly.
What happens when a senior needs assisted living? How will they afford it? What if one of them has a debilitating stroke and needs long-term skilled nursing? On a nationwide basis, it averages $80,000 a year.
Are you aware that board and care homes in Orange County California recently went up $1,000 to $1,500 a month because of the increase to minimum wage? Board and cares are the least expensive options for seniors needing assisted living type care. How will seniors afford the care now?
Social security is not increasing for seniors in 2016.
Costs for independent living, assisted living, memory care and Continuing Care Retirement Communities will continue to rise as food, utilities and minimum wage goes up. Most of these retirement communities are saddled with a 50 to 100 million mortgage. The residents will be making those interest payments too.
Here’s a tip: Ask what the history of the year-over-year monthly fee increases have been. What will it be in 2016? Some predictions are 5 – 8 percent increases? What have you heard?
It is getting tougher for seniors to make decisions and plan for their future.
Here’s another tip: Sometimes that one time investment at a Continuing Care Retirement Community ends up costing you less in the long run. Figure out the break-even point for you. Many offer you support if you outlive your resources. Ask lots of questions and do not rely on verbal promises of senior living sales people.
News Flash: Diane Masson’s new interview on Generation Bold Radio will broadcast on Sunday, December 6th on the BizTalkRadio Network syndicated to 33 stations across the country.
Diane Masson is a senior living expert who has authored two 5-star rated books sold through Amazon. Her new book is an all-encompassing answer guide for seniors called, “Your Senior Housing Options,” designed to help seniors navigate choices quickly. The second book was written for senior living professionals called, Senior Housing Marketing – How To Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full. Reach out to her through her website: Tips2Seniors.com and read the weekly blog.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Steven G. Potkin speak about a new Alzheimer’s study to prevent Alzheimer’s at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Wow, I hope this study is successful.
Dr. Potkin said that I could share all the information with you because he is currently seeking senior candidates who are 65 to 85 years of age (with normal memory) for this clinical study on Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
He is investigating a new drug intervention that may reduce the impact of a protein known as “amyloid” or “beta amyloid” forming plaques in the brain. Scientists believe that accumulation of amyloid in the brain may play a key role in the eventual development of AD-related memory loss.
Dr. Potkin is conducting the research study at the University of California Irvine (UCI) Medical Center in Orange, California. It is called the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s study (the “A4” study for short) for seniors who may be at risk for memory loss due to AD.
A senior participant and his or her study partner need to be willing to be part of a three-year study. The study partner (must have frequent contact with the senior participant) would describe changes in the senior participant’s health to the study staff on a weekly basis.
There will be a PET scan at the initial screening meeting and at the conclusion of the three-year study to determine whether the senior participant has evidence of an elevated amyloid build-up. Senior participants will also receive monthly study drug infusions.
For more detailed information and the total compensation for completing the study, please contact Andrea Weideman with Dr. Steven G. Potkin’s Reseach Team at: 714-456-5697
My mother-in-law has Alzheimer’s and I pray this research can prevent future seniors from getting AD in the first place. Good luck to Dr. Potkin and the whole research team at UCI.
During my time with Dr. Potkin, he commended me for writing the book, “Your Senior Housing Options,” and said it is a much needed resource for seniors.
Diane Masson advocated for her mom who had dementia for nine years and her mother-in-law currently lives in a memory care community. Diane writes a Tips2Seniors blog every week and published a book to take the guess work out selecting senior housing before, during or after a health care crisis, “Your Senior Housing Options.” She has worked in senior housing for 17 years and her first book, “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” is helping senior housing professionals on a nationwide basis.
First, plan ahead and know that every senior has a 66% chance of needing assisted living or skilled nursing in the future.
Second, do not rely on the verbal promises of senior housing sales people. Read the agreement for services or contract. If a senior does not understand it, they should ask a savvy friend or hire an attorney to help them. The majority of retirement counselors are honest and passionate about serving seniors. A few will say “anything” to get a senior to move in immediately.
How do you know if a retirement community will really take care of you or not in your future? Here are some important questions to ask EVERY senior housing community BEFORE you move from your home:
What happens when a senior needs a higher level of care like assisted living or skilled nursing?
Will the senior be asked to leave the retirement community?
Do they offer a higher level of care on the same campus? How much does that cost per month?
Does an outside company bring caregivers into the senior’s apartment home to provide care? What is the hourly cost? What is that company’s reputation?
What happens if a senior falls in the middle of the night?
Is there an emergency call system? Who responds to it? Are they medically trained?
What happens if a senior falls and he or she can’t hit the emergency button? Will they will be found in a timely fashion?
Is there a daily check in system?
What happens if a senior outlives their resources?
Is there a Good Samaritan Fund or Foundation to help a senior so that he or she won’t get kicked out? Is there a limit of how many seniors can be utilizing the fund at any one time?
Or is there just a flat guarantee of care in writing that a senior will never be kicked out unless they divest their own funds on purpose by giving gifts to their children?
What else should a senior ask in order to make a good move?
If an aging senior has a new health diagnosis or is getting frail, what might happen in his or her future?
Many seniors don’t realize that senior living communities often have minimum health requirements. If you have a diagnosis of a progressive disease, you may not qualify for certain types of housing. If you are in the later stages of Alzheimer’s, you may only qualify for memory care or skilled nursing care.
It is illegal for a senior housing care provider to let you move in and not be able to provide for your needs. Many seniors are stunned when they arrive at an independent senior living community to be told they have bypassed an independent living setting and that an assisted living community would provide a more appropriate level of care for them.
The conversation that a retirement counselor in a senior housing community dreads most is “the talk” with a future resident. As I write this, one Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) that I work with had to turn down two senior applicants in the last six weeks. One applicant had a diagnosis of dementia and could not manage alone, and the other was too frail for independent living. Even though those seniors thought they were fine to move into independent living, they only qualified for assisted living.
Other CCRCs I worked with in the past would deny people admittance if they had ever had cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, or anything that would send them quickly into a higher level of care for an extended period of time. How can they do this, you might ask? Well, it is a contract for services, and as long as they are consistent with all applicants, this is considered consistent with fair housing practices.
Have you ever heard of denying a senior (in a wheelchair) admittance into a retirement community? A senior prospect (in a wheelchair) said it happened to them at several communities. How can this be?
“Your Senior Housing Options,”has a simplistic title, but what’s inside this new book can save a you months of research time. Hear Diane Masson’s interviewof how her mother and in-law’s faced the pivotal decision to plan ahead or wait until a crisis. Learn the pitfalls from transitioning from your home to senior housing. Understand what questions to ask, insider tips and dirty secrets revealed. For weekly tips join at: Www.Tips2Seniors.com
Diane Masson has worked in senior housing for 17 years and is the regional marketing director for two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern CA (Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet). Her first book “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” is being utilized by senior housing professionals across the country. Both her first book and second book, “Your Senior Housing Options,” have a 5-star rating on Amazon.com.
Smart seniors plan ahead and research their options. Don’t get caught in a health care crisis. Once you are in crisis mode, your options may be limited. These seven deadly sins are a summation of my work with thousands of seniors during the course of my career.
Do you agree with these 7 deadly sins in the video? Do they apply for home care, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and Continuing Care Retirement Communities?
Your Senior Housing Options,”has a simplistic title, but what’s inside this new book can save a you months of research time. Hear Diane Masson’s interviewof how her mother and in-law’s faced the pivotal decision to plan ahead or wait until a crisis. Learn the pitfalls from transitioning from your home to senior housing. Understand what questions to ask, insider tips and dirty secrets revealed. For weekly tips join at: Www.Tips2Seniors.com
Diane Masson has worked in senior housing for 17 years and is the regional marketing director for two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern CA (Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet). Her first book “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” is being utilized by senior housing professionals across the country. Both her first book and second book, “Your Senior Housing Options,” have a 5-star rating on Amazon.com.
