Hear author Diane Masson articulate home care, assisted living and skilled nursing costs. Which one do you think costs the most? You might be surprised.
Learn tips on comparing home care to assisted living and how Continuing Care Retirement Communities can offer financial security. She shares what happened when her mother ran out of assets in assisted living and how to plan ahead for future health care costs if you own a home. Diane shares how her mother-in-law is paying $8,000 a month for long-term care and may run out of assets. Be smart and educate yourself before a health care crisis.
Diane Masson has empowered thousands of seniors to plan ahead and gives great tips for adult children whose parents are in a health care crisis. “Your Senior Housing Options,” can answer all your questions and empower you to help any struggling senior. More free tips at Tips2Seniors.com.
After extensive research studying Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC’s), learn why an active senior couple is moving to a Continuing Care Retirement Community in Orange County. It is called Freedom Village. Regional Marketing Director Diane Masson explains wait lists, the path to residency and shares a surprise for Karen.
Diane Masson has helped thousands of seniors make educated decisions by planning ahead and gives great tips for adult children whose parents are in crisis mode. “Your Senior Housing Options,” has a 5-star rating on Amazon.com. This book can answer all your questions and empower you to help any struggling senior. Knowledge is power and this book gives a comprehensive overview of all senior housing options.
A staff talent show for the residents. The Human Resources Director organized the the talent show and the Activity Director invited the residents. The admission ticket was any donation to Alzheimer’s. Both the dress rehearsal at the all staff meeting and the main show for the residents were full houses.
The Sunshine Group at Freedom Village had been making adult coloring placemats for skilled nursing resident’s food trays. Select drawings were shrunk down, shellacked onto tiles and sold in four packs with stickers notating the resident artist.
Third, residents, staff and a Girl Scout troop proudly arrived at the walk wearing “Freedom to Thrive” T-shirts.
The Community Relations Director was interviewed on local TV discussing the walk.
This is a simple recipe for PR success, but it took a lot of teamwork. This project was overseen by a very creative community relations director, Stephanie Riggs.
Learn the reasons why a 73 year old senior would plan ahead. After living in a 55-plus retirement community for 15 years and watching neighbors struggle as they age, she and her husband wanted to live in a supportive environment that offers future health care.
My mother moved into a not-for-profit Continuing Care Retirement Community. That’s where I started my senior housing career. I sold the not-for-profit status as better and more mission driven than the money grubby for-profits, because that was what all the not-for-profits said and did.
I was naive for three reasons, because later I learned:
A non-profit board that did not understand seniors or senior housing made financial decisions for the entire senior living community.
Most of the profits at the non-profit went towards other ministry work instead of being reinvesting back into the senior community.
A resident was sexual abused by a non-profit staff member, even though every employee professed to be Christian.
Then my senior housing career switched to for-profit. It can be pretty dog-eat-dog aggressive at some companies. It really varies in the senior living industry if the resident is number one or the stockholders are the primary concern. So you better find out before you consider moving there or working there.
If a sales person can’t hit the required sales numbers, you are simply fired at some for-profits. Maybe that’s why so many sales people are impersonal and just want to know if you are ready now? If a senior is not ready now, the sales person has no interest in calling a senior back after they have toured. This is sad, because most seniors need to come back several times before making a decision to move. A relationship needs to be built.
At for-profit senior living communities, most financial decisions go towards the benefit of the stockholders. But there are some amazing administrators that love, adore and would walk on hot coals for their residents and staff. So resident centered communities can vary by location and not the owner in my opinion.
There are actually two types of for-profits: Those on the stock exchange and boutique communities that are run by families or attentive owners. I am lucky to work for a for-profit that is run by attentive owners. They have the heart of a not-for-profit and are completely resident centered and mission driven.
The communities I represent do something very unique for Continuing Care Retirement Communities.They offer a Guarantee of Care for life, if a resident outlives their resources. Every resident has the same offer, it is not limited to 5 or 10 residents on a good Samaritan fund or foundation.
Do you agree with my analogies or am I completely off base? How would you evaluate the differences?
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.
After 200 blog posts of new content supporting the senior housing industry, why am I suddenly cast aside by LinkedIn? Do you think it is fair? In four years, I have helped tons of LinkedIn users join groups and now the groups shun my blogs?
Why?
LinkedIn and their groups have new rules to stop people from shamelessly promoting themselves. Did LinkedIn protect my quality content when people replied on LinkedIn to my posts with their own self-promotions rather than addressing the question at hand? No!
Why is LinkedIn shunning me now? It’s because I am trying to provide resources to benefit the senior housing industry and seniors through links in my articles.
One link was to my published book that can benefit seniors and Boomer children in evaluating retirement options. Every human on this planet knows someone who could be helped by learning about, “Your Senior Housing Options.” This is a resource not self-promotion! It took me a year and a half to write it on Saturdays, while I worked full time. I paid my own money to publish this book, because I felt the message would help seniors have a better quality of life by planning ahead.
Another link was to my YouTube TV interviews. Every video contains an educational resource topic and explains solutions for seniors and family members in crisis mode. One video is about understanding the differences between a senior staying home and paying a caregiver to help take care of them versus moving to assisted living. Another video explains the differences between rental retirement communities and Continuing Care Retirement Communities. How is this self-promotion?
The largest 55 plus community in California thought my information was of value to seniors and published my information and resources on the front page of their publication.
A radio station offered me a 15 minute interview and found the information for seniors to be so helpful that it turned into 30 minutes and another interview is already scheduled.
What is my goal? I want to bring a message to seniors across this nation that they should plan ahead instead of waiting for a crisis. Why? Because I have been working with seniors for 19 years both personally and professionally. My own mother planned ahead at age 75 and my in-laws waited for a crisis. They could not leave their home, so our family has been living in crisis mode for 10 months. My poor mother-in-law with dementia has never been the same since a hospital put her on psychotropic medications during this crisis.
Seniors need to understand the costs and consequences of waiting for a crisis. Every senior has a right to know what their choices are before a health care crisis strikes them.
There will be no links in this article to see if LinkedIn publishes me this week. Please comment if you agree that my links are resources and please comment if you disagree.
Please like this article if you found it of value and pass it on to your friends through social media. If you like what I talk about, then sign up for my weekly newsletter. You may not see me on LinkedIn in the future. Every single one of us knows a senior who has waited too long, so help educate a senior on how to plan ahead today.
