• Continuing Care Retirement Communities

MAJOR ADVANTAGES OF A CONTINUING CARE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY

Residents Do Not Have to Move Again. Moving is difficult and stressful at any age and is particularly challenging for older adults. Young people borrow a truck and get their friends to help them move. If you're 80, it is hard to round up your friends to move your heavy furniture up or down several flights of stairs. Moving is a pain and it gets to be expensive. It is also hard to leave your friends behind. Further, if the reason for the move is because your health is declining and you need a little more help, such as in a move from independent living to assisted living, or from assisted living to a nursing home, you probably won't feel like touring facilities to make a decision, much less like packing and doing the actual move. Moving when you are not well is extremely hard. The idea behind a continuing care retirement community is that you move into independent living while you are healthy. Ideally, you will enjoy many active, independent years there. If your health does start to decline, you won't have to search for additional services; they are already available in your community. You simply have to move next door or across the street and the community staff can help with that, if needed. You don't have to do the searching or the hard physical labor and you stay in the community with your friends.

In some communities, you "buy into" the community when you first choose to move to independent living. The money you pay for your first home there (house, condo or apartment) helps finance your later care in assisted or skilled care. In some communities, you simply pay rent at all residence levels.

Some communities invite you to "age in place." What does that mean? It means that you pick a residence, at whatever level of care you initially need. If your health declines, the community brings ever increasing levels of care to you right in your original apartment. The levels of care increase, but you stay put.

Spouses Can Live in the Same Community, even When They Cannot Live Together. In traditional wedding vows, the bride and groom promise to love and care for each "in sickness and in health as long as they both shall live." That care gets harder to provide as we age. Spouses cannot always provide all the help the other needs and they do not always have equal care needs. One spouse may require daily health care assistance, while the other spouse may need a lower level of care or may be quite independent. For couples who still live in their original home, it is not uncommon in these circumstances for one spouse to have to move to assisted living, a dementia unit or a skilled care facility, while the other spouse stays at home, worries and grieves, tries to manage the house alone and usually drives to the care facility daily, in all kinds of weather, to visit the ill spouse In a continuing care retirement community, life is a little easier. One spouse can live independently and one in assisted living or skilled nursing care, and they can easily spend most of the day together. Neither spouse is burdened by a lot of home maintenance chores. It isn't necessary to drive in order to see each other. They can share meals, time and activities with friends while each receives assistance at the right level (and at the right cost) for that individual spouse. One may eventually need assisted living and the other skilled care and still they can visit and share time together. Family members and friends who come to visit can see both at the same time, instead of splitting their time between locations. If either spouse has a medical emergency, not only is care quickly available, but the other spouse is also right there regardless of the time of day or night when the emergency occurs. When the spouses are not doing something together, each has a range of companionship and activities available to him or her within the community. These living arrangement options may lessen the loneliness of both spouses and may significantly decrease the stress experienced by the healthier, care giver spouse, particularly if driving has become more difficult for that spouse over the years.

WHY MOVE TO A CONTINUING CARE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY WHILE STILL HEALTHY, AS OPPOSED TO STAYING IN YOUR OWN HOME?

First, homes, condos or independent living apartments in a continuing care community may be extremely nice, quite comparable to your current home. Most are designed with older adults in mind and may have smart features such as raised electrical sockets (so you don't have to bend down to the floor to plug something in), pull-out drawers in the kitchen cabinets (less bending, stooping and stretching), decorative edges around kitchen counters (so you can see the edge of the counter even without your glasses), walk-in showers (no more climbing over the side of the bathtub), no stairs and other similar practical design features. Homes can be small or quite large, depending on the community. Some communities have golf courses, tennis courts, swimming pools, health clubs or walking trails. Many communities have one or more restaurant style dining rooms available to independent living residents, as well as dining rooms in the care buildings. Most offer all sorts of activities, ranging from arts and crafts, golf leagues and home-grown musical groups to travel clubs, card parties and volunteer groups. Many communities offer doctors on site, even for the independent living residents. Most offer transportation to local shopping, medical appointments and recreational outings. Some communities welcome small pets. It is generally easy to make friends among other residents, who are all in a similar age range as you, and may share similar backgrounds and interests. Community residents also tend to look out for one another. You may find you are much more active in a retirement community than you were at home, and your new-found fun activities do NOT involve climbing ladders to clean out the gutters or those other household maintenance chores you dreaded each year.

Second, should your health decline, you're prepared. You know how and where to get the help you need, all with a minimum of change or fuss. You can maintain your friendships, stay in your own community and still get the help you need to live as independently as possible. You have a plan in place for whatever you might need. This may help you to sleep better at night, and it may do the same for your family.

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER

Is the community completely built? If the community advertises itself as a continuing care community, and if that is the primary reason you are interested, is the community fully built? Specifically, are the levels of care, higher than whatever level you need initially, already built? If you want to move into independent living, and the assisted living building is almost done, but the builder hasn't broken ground yet on the skilled care facility, it may be premature to consider this a continuing care community. Does the community have a plan in place if your care needs increase before that other building is finished? Do they have an agreement with another local care facility to take a resident before the skilled care unit is finished? And is that agreement acceptable to you? Similarly, even if the entire community is complete (and most of them are), if you suddenly need assisted living or skilled care, and if all the apartments in those units are currently full, what plan is in place to provide care to you? Is that back-up plan acceptable to you?

Do you Like the Neighborhood? Are you comfortable with the neighborhood? Do you feel safe? Do you have friends or favorite stores or restaurants near by? Does the community itself look clean, inviting and well-cared for? If you need parking for your vehicle, is that convenient to your new home? Are there attractive, safe spots to take a walk or sit and enjoy a cup of coffee in the fresh air?

Finances. The financial issues are complex. Some communities charge rent, or the equivalent (room and board, plus care charges) at all levels of the community, including independent living. They do not ask you to buy a home or to invest in the community. Other communities may ask you to buy your initial home, if you come in at the independent living level. That home may be an actual house or condo, which you buy outright, or you may be asked to "buy in" or invest in the community. If you move to a higher care level, you may need to sell your initial investment in order to get your money back (with the assistance of the community) or you may be able to draw on that investment to pay for care costs at those higher levels of care. If you use up all of your initial investments, is the remainder of your care paid for by the facility, or will you be responsible for payment for ongoing care? If you will be responsible for the costs of ongoing care, do you have enough income, or savings and investments, to do so? Will the facility accept Medicaid if you run out of funds or do they have a charitable endowment to help residents?

Those questions should not alarm you, but they should help you ask the right questions when you tour and interview communities. Before signing any paperwork for the community, you need to thoroughly understand how you will pay for your residence and the differing levels of care you may need over time. If you are being asked to buy in or to invest in the community, you need to understand clearly what that payment covers, how or if you can get that money back, and how it relates to paying for additional care. You won't be the first person to ask these questions of facility staff and they should be able to explain their financial set-up clearly. If you have a financial advisor or family member who helps you with investments, you might want to have them take a look at the financial requirements and history for the community before you decide to move. Just like you would if buying a home in any other neighborhood, make sure this is a good move for you and that you can afford to make the move. Ask what bills will be your responsibility once you move, for example, utilities, cable, phone, etc. Is there a charge for using the bus or van to go to the store or somewhere else? Is there a charge for eating in the dining room? Is there a charge for housekeeping services? Plan out a budget before making your final decision.
For couples, when considering your budget, ask the community staff what happens if one of you goes to assisted living or skilled care while the other stays in independent living. How does that affect rent or your investment? Make sure you can handle the costs for two residences in the same community (bear in mind, however, that this same financial burden could occur if you remain in your original home and one of you needs additional care). Get all the facts before you decide.

Religious or Group Affiliations: Some continuing care communities have religious or group affiliations, although communities cannot deny admission based on anyone's religious faith. If the community is predominantly of a certain faith or creed, will you be comfortable there? Or is that exactly what attracts you to the community? Some groups can require you to meet certain membership criteria in order to be eligible for admission to the community (such as masonic homes), and they may offer great bargains for their own members and should not be overlooked.