Assisted Living Admission Requirements and Criteria

Before you check your Mom or Dad into an Assisted living home or facility, you should know what is involved. Assisted living communities provide care to individuals who are 18 years of age or older. Eligibility for admission is based on an individual’s care level requirements. Individuals entering assisted living facilities often need assistance with ADLs (activities of daily living) such as personal care, hygiene assistance, mobility, meal preparation, medication management and more.

Assisted living is not appropriate for individuals who:

  • Have a severe cognitive impairment
  • Show behavioral symptoms such as wandering
  • Have extensive medical needs
  • Require daily nursing services

Individuals who use a wheelchair may be discouraged from entering an assisted living facility.

Assisted Living Requirements

The Basics Of Assisted Living

If you need to know What are assisted living facilities then click on that link. Otherwise, lets talk about the basics of assisted living.

Currently, nearly 1.2 million individuals live in the nearly 30,000 assisted living facilities in the U. S. In general, the average resident of an assisted living facility is an 80-year-old mobile female who has moved from a private living arrangement to the facility and has an average annual income of approximately $30,000. Individuals who require a wheelchair for locomotion, have a severe cognitive impairment, or show behavioral symptoms such as wandering are discouraged from becoming residents of an assisted living facility.

The typical resident lives in assisted living for two to three years, and many then move to nursing homes. Other reasons that a facility discharges an individual include:

Resident Rights at Assisted Living Facility

Assisted living facilities allow individuals to remain independent as long as possible in an environment that maximizes the person’s autonomy, dignity, privacy, and safety, as well as emphasizes family and community involvement. This means that in cases of temporary incapacity, the care recipient should be allowed to remain in the facility or should be readmitted after needed outside services have been provided. Even when death is imminent, the facility often allows the patient to remain as long as the facility can provide any necessary services. In general, resident rights in assisted living facilities include:

  • Being treated with dignity and respect
  • Continued practice of or abstinence from religion
  • Freedom from neglect or abuse
  • Freedom to interact with individuals inside and outside of the facility
  • Privacy
  • Receipt of all evaluations of medical needs and health-related services
  • Representation in residential councils
  • Retention and use of personal possessions
  • Self-control of personal finances

Additionally, most assisted living facilities continue to allow residents to use tobacco and consume alcohol, to keep small pets or to interact with facility-owned pets, to allow visitors at any time during the day, and to allow overnight guests at the discretion of the resident.

Please Call Bobbie at (310) 699-3000

 

Research information was provided by: http://www.caregiverslibrary.org/caregivers-resources/grp-care-facilities/hsgrp-assisted-living-facilities/the-basics-of-assisted-living-article.aspx