Find and Compare Assisted Living Facilities

My parents are getting on in years, and I'm worried about them staying home by themselves all the time. Because I live two states away and frequently travel on business, I'm not able to provide any personalized care myself. Plus, I don't think my folks are quite ready for a full-service nursing home at this point. They're still very active in many respects, so that's why I've been checking out assisted living facilities instead.

Assisted living facilities serve as something of a compromise between complete independence and a nursing home. These places are able to give residents help with some of the day-to-day tasks that seniors can no longer easily handle on their own, but don't get into the full medical assistance found in nursing homes. So staff members can come in and help Mom and Dad with chores like bathing, dressing, and doing laundry, while stopping short of administering real health care. That's actually perfect, though, since my parents don't have any serious medical issues to speak of.

Since I don't have any experience with assisted living facilities, I've been looking online for some free information. I've come across a couple of comprehensive guides and have been reading through those to get an idea of the features that all the best assisted living facilities have in common. Furthermore, I want to find a trusted facility either near my home so I can regularly drop in on Mom and Dad, or near their current home so they can stay in the community they've lived in for a majority of their lives. This has been kind of a lot for me to digest in such a short period of time, but the sooner I get my folks settled, the sooner my mind will be at ease.

If I strike out on the Internet searches, another way to get leads on nearby assisted living facilities is through a referral service. These referral services basically serve as consultants to help place potential residents in affordable retirement communities based on wants, needs, and budget. I think it would be great to sit down and talk to an expert about the whole situation prior to making a decision, because I'm sure all of us will have a bunch of questions that we want to ask first.

Although my parents are still pretty active for their age, I think they will enjoy the security that comes from moving to one of these assisted living facilities. They'll get all the help they need to make their daily lives more comfortable, will have the benefit of 24-hour supervision, and will also be able to make lots of great new friends. Mom and Dad still have a lot of years left to live, so I'm going to do my best to ensure that they get settled in a fabulous retirement community as soon as possible.