Difference Between Assisted Living Facilities and Nursing Homes

There are many aged people who dread ever going into a nursing home. This is because they are going to forfeit their independence and freedom. They feel they will not have any privacy again.

The alternative to nursing home is Assisted Living Facilities, popularly known as ALF. These facilities are for people needing assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) but wishing to live as independently as possible for as long as possible.  Assisted living exists to bridge the gap between independent living and nursing homes. 

Residents in assisted living centers are not able to live by themselves but do not require constant care either. Assisted living facilities offer help with ADLs such as eating, bathing, dressing, laundry, housekeeping, and assistance with medications. 

Many facilities also have centers for medical care; however, the care offered may not be as intensive or available to residents as the care offered at a nursing home.

The decision on whether to send your loved one to an assisted living facility or a nursing home depends on so many factors. And these factors are what differentiate the two.

• Place: While assisted living facility is a place for one or few particular aged at a time, a nursing home houses many aged people. The former house an individual who is given all the help and assistance he or she needs but the nursing home is a home for many aged people. 
  
• Cost: The cost of assisted living facility is on the high side. This is because it is an apartment like setting, which is a kind of suite. On the other hand, the nursing home is cheaper because there are many older people there who will share the burden of the cost of living in the home. 
  
• Facilities: The facility in the assisted living facility is meant for an individual while the facilities in the nursing home are provided for all the aged residing in the home. 
  
• In an assisted living facility, skilled nursing care is not usually provided by the staff; however, it is usually is made available on an as-needed basis through skilled nursing care providers. A nursing home is typically a hospital-like environment, in which your loved one lives. The environment provides full-scale skilled nursing care. 
  
• Unlike the nursing homes designed to care for very frail people not able to care for themselves and have numerous health care requirements, the assisted living facilities are designed to assist elderly persons who are able to care for themselves except for a few activities. 
  
• Assisted living facilities are often deemed necessary when the person in question needs help preparing meals, bathing, dressing, performing household chores, is sometimes confused, or is experiencing memory problems. These types of problems are usually not the main reason why old or aged people are sent to a nursing home. 
  
• There is access to Medicare for someone at a nursing home while this may not b readily available whilst living in Assisted Living Facility.

Your major pre-occupation when deciding on whether to send your loved one to a nursing home or assisted living facility should be the welfare of your loved one. You may consider the cost involved but it should not be the major consideration when considering where they should live their final years.