Learn free tips and advice from a senior living expert who has walked the journey with thousands of seniors in four states. Diane Masson’s professional and personal senior living experience includes:
Identifying the important considerations of staying home versus moving to a retirement community.
Helping her own mom plan ahead and move to a Continuing Care Retirement Community, before she had dementia.
Supporting her in-laws when they were simultaneously in hospitals and had to be put into different facilities (assisted living and skilled nursing).
This video will explain the three levels of care in senior housing. It identifies health requirements to move into an independent retirement community. Learn what happens if a senior or couple qualify to move into a retirement community, then change their mind(s). Can the senior or couple still qualify one year later if their health worsens? When does a senior with memory loss or dementia bypass their opportunity to move into an independent setting at a retirement community? These are expert answers by award winning author Diane Masson. She has written two books about senior housing: “Your Senior Housing Options” for seniors and “Senior Housing Marketing” for professionals.
Diane Masson is the regional marketing director of two Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California, Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet. Connect with her at tips2seniors.com
Did you share a holiday dinner with a struggling senior? Have the basics become difficult for your senior parent? Is there a little dementia? Learn how to have “The Talk,” with a senior from author Diane Masson.
Happy holidays from Diane Masson and Tips2Seniors.com
Let’s hear from professionals around the world to see if this assumption is correct! Do seniors need fewer days of hospice in assisted living and skilled nursing than at home? It makes sense to me.
An article by the Philly Voice stated, “At hospice enrollment, between 2008 and 2012, 78,130 of the patients in the study lived at home and 7,451 were in assisted living.”
My own mom with vascular dementia, living in skilled nursing care, only needed 4 days of hospice care. While my mom was actively dying with hospice care, I read about all the signs people show approaching death.
In a great little book called, “Gone from my Sight, The Dying Experience,” by Barbara Karnes, RN, I learned how seniors start to withdraw one to three months prior to death. The desire for food decreases while sleep dramatically increases. A senior can become more disoriented, agitated and talk with the unseen one or two weeks before death.
As I held my mom’s nonresponsive hand a few days before her death, I realized that most of what the book predicted had happened to my mom in the previous few months. Yet she was completely supported in her skilled nursing environment. What a gift that community gave her.
When she could not feed herself (she forgot how because of her dementia), the caregivers or I would feed her. At every meal she was given an opportunity to feed herself. The staff never gave up on her improving. If my mom had been home, I would have fretted and taken her to the doctor to learn why she was eating less.
My mom never had to be disrupted from her familiar environment and go the hospital like many hospice patients. All types of care could happen right at her skilled nursing community. My mom needed full care (bathing, dressing, medication management, two-person transfers, toileting and feeding).
I can see in my mind’s eye that many higher-level assisted livings could accomplish what my mom’s skilled nursing environment did for her. Calm caring 24/7 staff that understands declining seniors can bring a sense of peace to the patient and his or her family members.
I want to personally thank all the assisted living and skilled nursing care workers that help seniors transition to death. Bless you! Shout out to all the nurses and caregivers at Freedom Village Skilled Nursing for what you did for my mom. Your compassionate staff rocks!
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 interview of 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. The decision to stay home requires caregivers. Prevent elder abuse by determining if a home care agency is reputable, before they move into your home. You are just not looking for today’s needs, but for your future care. Discover key differences between rental facilities vs Continuing Care Retirement Communities. Do you have enough financial resources if you need to be in a higher level of care for an extended period of time? 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.
UN-ENGAGED EMPLOYEES HAVE CRACKS THAT NEED REPAIR!
Is there a crack in your armor? Are you living on empty and have nothing left to give your family or job? Maybe you are a full-or part-time caregiver for an aging parent or a senior with dementia? Perhaps you are in a senior living sales slump?
You can’t help anyone else or be productive at work unless you take care of yourself first. Look for joy in the moments. You may be going through a dire time. Maybe your parent or one of your senior patients is dying. Perhaps your daughter or son has some kind of health or school trauma. Possibly you just learned that someone scheduled to move into your retirement community has changed his or her mind. It may have been the one you needed to hit your sales goal this month. Sigh…they are going to stay home and wait for a crisis. You start asking why over and over.
Don’t become jaded and harden yourself with a giant wall to protect your emotions. It’s mentally checking out and called un-engagement. Your family, senior prospective residents and coworkers can feel your wall.
If you work in senior living sales, we can’t help every senior. Only the ones who choose to plan ahead. Do you feel overwhelmed with what’s happening in your personal life? Is your lack of sales getting you down? Well it’s time to go find your rainbow. Are you wondering how to get started? Feed your mind with positive thoughts. Schedule time to heal yourself!
10 Recharging Tips:
Go to a live concert, stand in your shower or drive down the road singing at the top of your lungs.
Sit by the ocean and wiggle your toes in the sand.
Fly down the road with the wind in your face on a bike or motorcycle.
Hold a baby or play with small children.
Take a Saturday to read a book.
Hang out with your friends.
Spend time in nature – amongst the trees, watching the river go by or gazing at a lake.
Soak in a bubble bath surrounded by candles.
Go to a sports game in person. Cheer on your favorite team.
Build a fire and make s’mores!
Recharge today, so you can change your world one senior or family member at a time.
Let your family and job see your heart when you speak. They will be moved and feel your sincerity. Seniors can tell if you want what’s best for them. Suddenly seniors who were “not ready yet” become ready to move into your retirement community. Conviction in your voice can move a mountain.
Shake off the negative. Don’t focus on the junk. I created a spiritual foundation of faith that can sustain me when I have a tough day. You can too. We all have moments of weakness. Believe in your ability to change a senior’s or family member’s life today.
In every encounter with family or at work, we either give life or drain it.
Do you give life to those around you at work and at home? Are you so worn out from working that you have nothing left to give your family? It’s your choice to be a giver or taker to those around you. Have you taken time to recharge yourself recently?
Everyone of us knows at least one senior that needs to move now. Here is a resource to help you or them make an informed decision. Diane Twohy Masson’s new guide book for seniors, “Your Senior Housing Options,” is available on Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. It reveals a proactive approach to navigating the complex maze of senior housing options. It will help you understand the costs and consequences of planning ahead or waiting too long. Learn firsthand tips from someone who is currently advocating for two aging parents.
Among the thousands of seniors she and her teams have assisted in finding the right senior living community, the most difficult case has been helping her own parent. Masson spent two years exploring senior housing options with her mother before finding the ideal Continuing Care Retirement Community for her. After eight years in this independent living setting, she helped her mother transition into an assisted living community. Seven years later, even as a senior housing expert, Masson struggled with the decision to move her mother into a skilled nursing community.
More related articles by Diane can be found at Tips2Seniors.comor like Tips 2 Seniors on Facebook.
