When I began to consider moving my mother from living independently, I was confronted with a barrage of terms used to describe various living situations. In addition, different terms seem to be used by the private sector to describe strictly private (i.e. non government-funded) "communities".
The questions I needed answers to in order to choose a facility included:
- How much care does she need?
- What does it cost?
- Should I be looking at private or publicly funded facilities?
- What options do I have with respect to location? (She and I weren't living in the same Health Care Region.)
- How would her doctor be involved?
- Where do I start???
As I began my research, I realized I needed to understand the terminology being used (Assisted Living, Long Term Care, etc.). Here is an excellent source of information.
I started looking at alternative living arrangements on multiple fronts. (Yes, I was looking at this like a war zone.) My mother's doctor suggested that she be evaluated by a psychiatrist, so I began booking appointments for that. I called the Fraser Health case worker with whom I had been working for several years, and asked to have her living conditions reassessed. At the same time, I began calling private facilities and visited a few that I thought might be appropriate.
For us, the case workers at Fraser Health became the solution to my problem. When they assessed my mom this time, they decided that she needed immediate placement in a long term care facility, as long as she would agree to move.
And as it turned out, "Assisted Living" was not the appropriate level of publicly provided care: the case workers determined that she needs more than 1 1/2 hours of personal assistance each day. So, they have their own definition, and a pretty easy way of determining where a patient should be placed.
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