Tips for Touring a Senior Living Community for a Loved One

When it’s time for a parent or other loved one to transition to senior living, families may find the search process overwhelming and confusing. But feeling confident in your decision is important. No senior or adult child wants to choose a senior living community, only to realize after moving in that it’s not a good fit.

Making an informed decision involves a combination of factors, starting with scheduling a personal tour and asking the right questions.

Questions to Ask During the Search for a Senior Living Community

Some questions you’ll want to ask are more obvious than others, such as whether an apartment is available right now and how long the wait list is. But other essential questions are easy to overlook if you aren’t familiar with these communities or how they operate.

We’ve assembled this list to help ensure you have the information you need before you sit down to make a decision together:

• How does the community screen and train caregivers and other team members?

The quality of the staff directly impacts the quality of care offered at senior living communities. Their experience, dedication, and compassion are all essential to the well-being of residents. It starts with the community having a good reputation and being able to attract the best candidates.

Not everyone is comfortable working with the senior population or those who have disabilities. As you call and tour communities, make sure to ask each one how they evaluate candidates for empathy and compassion. That’s much more difficult to do than checking references and confirming experience.

Also inquire about the actual hiring process, especially what kind of background checks are completed. You want to know that the people who will be caring for your family member are trustworthy.

Finally, ask questions to see how new team members are trained and how they continue to update their skills. The staff development regulations that each community is required to meet will depend on the state in which they are located and how they are licensed.

• What is the ratio between residents and caregivers?

Another important factor in evaluating a community’s quality of care is how many residents each caregiver is responsible for on a typical day. Even the most seasoned caregiver will struggle to provide good care when they have too many residents at once. Be sure to specifically ask how many clinical team members and aides are typically on duty at a time. While management and support staff are important too, they shouldn’t be factored into caregiver-to-resident ratios.

A lower caregiver-to-resident ratio also promotes greater continuity of care. Caregivers have the time they need to get to know residents and be able to detect small changes in their well-being before they become a serious issue.

• What is the average tenure for caregivers?

While working with older adults can be very rewarding, these positions are also physically and emotionally demanding. Because of that, turnover is higher in the senior living industry than in other fields. The best senior living communities, however, find ways to hang on to staff longer and keep caregiver turnover more reasonable than those places where staff is stretched thin or compensation is low. Make sure to ask about the turnover rate at each community you are seriously considering.

• How much are monthly fees, and what is and isn’t included?

Once you begin touring senior living communities, you’ll quickly discover how very different pricing structures are. Some companies have all-inclusive pricing that bundles care and services into one monthly fee. Other communities have a base monthly fee with additional level-of-care charges based on the individual resident’s needs. That means monthly expenses can fluctuate.

Also remember to ask what additional fees you should expect to incur in an average month, such as for transportation to doctor’s appointments or personal laundry. This will help make sure you are comparing one community with another on an apples-to-apples basis.

Invest in a Mobile Monitoring Device

Finding a senior living community that is the best fit for a loved one often takes time. While you are searching, if you are concerned about your family member’s safety at home, consider investing in a mobile monitoring unit. In the event of a fall or other home emergency, the user can quickly summon help with the press of a button. Call 1-844-203-5617 to learn more or get started!