What:

This type of living environment allows for freedom and flexibility depending on your needs. From private, independent living apartments to assisted living apartments to higher levels of care like skilled nursing care, continuing care retirement communities offer a wide range of living solutions and the ability to move around within the community as the need arises. This option also reduces the difficulty of finding new residential accommodations as physical and emotional needs change, reducing the overall strain on you and your loved one.

The independent living apartments provide housekeeping, lawn maintenance, and snow removal, as well as activities and a social network of peers who have similar life experiences. If a need for support with activities of daily living arises, then an assisted living option in the same community can be accessed. If there is an acute situation – such as a fall after which rehabilitation is required – skilled nursing care is available in the same community.

Who:

This is ideal for the person planning ahead of any care concerns. This is also a great living option if you have one spouse who is independent, but the other has a higher level of care needs.

Consider This Scenario:

A husband and wife in their early 70’s lived in their family home together for 50 years. The wife is independent and has no care needs but is also the caregiver to the husband who has Parkinson’s. He is starting to decline, needing more physical assistance with bathing and dressing, and the added physical stress begins to take a toll on the wife, creating some medical concerns for her. The husband fell and now needs Skilled Rehabilitation. Living in this environment allows her to remain independent and get the assistance her husband needs in the skilled nursing environment. They can still have meals together and see one another frequently while on the same campus.

Cost:

Variable—an endowment is paid when coming into the community based on an application that takes income/assets/medical conditions into consideration to determine the amount required to “buy in” along with a monthly fee. This alleviates the concern about having to transfer if/when income and assets run out.