Senior Care - What's the best environment for my elderly parent?

I’m Dave Ciccantelli, and I’m the owner of Assisted Living Locators Waukesha. In December of 2017, I launched the first franchise of Assisted Living Locators in Wisconsin after experiencing the challenges of trying to navigate the complicated number of senior care options for my father.

Because of this, I plan, over the next several weeks, to help educate those of us who are looking at senior care options for our parents, relatives, or for ourselves. Because I’m local and in the community, I’m able to look at a wide range of options for seniors. I see my job as educating so people can make the best choice for their situation.

This is my second installment in a series of articles providing more information about the available options in the senior housing industry. Today, I’m going to discuss independent living.

In my previous article, I defined independent living as apartment-style living for the 55+ age demographic. Residents are usually still active & able to care for themselves with minimal help.

When seniors reach a point where they’re ready to downsize their living environment but still able to handle most or all of their activities of daily living (aka ADLs), an independent living community is an excellent option.

These facilities also known as Residential Care Apartment Complexes (RCAC), have an average of 35-40 apartments. Besides lodging, many of them offer various types of support services such as meals, cleaning, transportation etc for an additional cost. Personal services may also be available such as bathing, grooming & dressing. Also, basic nursing services like health monitoring & medication management can be included. Monitoring is critical not only for safety reasons, but also for assessing when changes may occur that require a change in care levels.

RCACs are often attached to larger communities that also offer transitioning to higher levels of care (assisted living, memory care & skilled nursing). The great advantage of this is that the senior resident has the option to age in-place without needing to move to another community when their needs change.

Assisted Living Locators offers a no-cost service for seniors and their families providing expert advice on short and long-term care options, including in-home care, independent living, assisted living, memory care, and retirement apartments. For more information about Assisted Living Locators, call Dave Ciccantelli at 262-933.8107, email at dciccantelli@assistedlivinglocators.com, or visit our website at www.Waukesha.AssistedLivingLocators.com.