0
0
The decision to place a loved one into a care facility is tough, whether it’s a nursing home or assisted living center. In addition to checking the facility’s reputation for safety, there are plenty more considerations you need to explore.
If you’re facing the tough decision of where to place your loved one, here are the top 5 considerations you probably haven’t thought about.
- Food quality and source
If you’ve ever visited someone in a care facility, you’ve probably seen plenty of unfinished and untouched meals. The unfortunate truth is that most facilities don’t serve good food. Even when they claim to make meals from scratch, they use low-quality ingredients.
Before putting your loved one in a facility, ask to taste the food and if it doesn’t taste good, find another facility. Your loved one will already be upset about having to live in a facility. If the food is bad, they might refuse to eat anything. If they won’t eat the food, they’ll slowly starve themselves until they die from malnutrition. Unfortunately, this happens frequently and it’s a painful process.
Choose a facility that serves high-quality food
People in care facilities need high-quality, good, nutritious food. If you’re trying to save money by placing your loved one into a state-run facility, they’re not going to get good meals. State-run facilities are on strict budgets. In fact, research shows that nursing homes spend $6.08 per person per day on food – that’s $2.02 per meal and is far less than what prisons spend on food for inmates.
The only way to ensure your loved one receives high-quality meals cooked with love is to place them in a care center that goes out of their way to create nutritious and delicious meals. You’ll need to look at private facilities to get this perk. Private facilities are often more expensive but are worth every penny.
For example, Cotton Grove Estate serves delicious meals to all residents and is considered the gold standard for senior care in Georgia. No doubt, the good food plays a role in that accomplishment.
- Accommodation for food sensitivities and preferences
In theory, most care facilities will say they can accommodate food preferences and sensitivities, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes food sensitivities and preferences aren’t treated with the same level of urgency as true allergies.
For example, Crystal Light is routinely served with meals and contains the artificial sweetener sucralose. You’ll have a hard time getting them to not serve these sugar-free beverages, especially if your loved one isn’t willing or able to stand up for themselves.
Other food preferences and sensitivities are hard to accommodate when the main courses are pre-made with mixed ingredients. This leaves your loved one with unappealing, repetitive options for daily meals like a garden salad, oatmeal, and bananas.
- Comfortable beds
The wrong bed can lead to a host of problems, including:
- Bed sores. Although bed sores form due to inactivity, certain beds make it hard to shift position to get relief.
- Back pain. Not many people like sleeping on a hard mattress because it leads to back pain.
- Sleep deprivation. Without a comfortable mattress, your loved one is likely to experience sleep deprivation either from insomnia or not falling into a deep sleep.
With the exception of assisted living facilities, most care centers don’t allow residents to use a personal mattress. If you can’t bring in a good mattress for your loved one, make sure the beds are comfortable since they’ll be lying or sitting in bed most of the time.
- A secure storage space with a lock
If your loved one has personal items they want to keep nearby, it will only be a matter of time before those items get stolen. Make sure there’s a space you can lock, like a closet or a dresser drawer.
If the facility doesn’t provide a locked space, bring in a small filing cabinet that you can lock. Make sure it’s big enough that someone can’t just walk away with it.
- The ability to take your loved one home for the holidays
If it’s important that you spend the holidays with your loved one at home, find out if you can take your loved one home for the holidays. Many care facilities allow this if you can provide the proper care. However, some facilities only allow you to take residents out for a meal or a walk on the premises.
Don’t settle
To make sure you choose the right facility, identify your loved one’s priorities and don’t settle for less.
