Who Can Benefit From Assisted Living Services?
According to the American Health Care Association’s National Center for Assisted Living, more than 800,000 seniors have chosen to make an assisted living community their home. Are you wondering if assisted living is right for you or a loved one? When deciding whether to move to assisted living, it’s helpful to know what types of services and amenities those communities provide and who can benefit from them.
It’s also important to consider where those communities are and whether you want to live there. For instance, many seniors thrive in the Arizona weather and beautiful desert surroundings. Lakeside, AZ, located in the scenic White Mountains, is a popular destination for many seniors. Solterra Senior Living has built a thriving Lakeside assisted living community offering an impressive range of services and amenities dedicated to helping all of their residents live well.
What Is Assisted Living?
It’s important to understand what “assisted living” means when determining who can benefit from it. Assisted living is a long-term care option in a residential, home-like setting for seniors who require non-medical assistance with daily living activities (ADLs). Seniors can maintain their independence in a safe and secure environment while having access to any help they might need 24 hours a day.
There is a wide range of assisted living communities, but generally, seniors in assisted living have private rooms or apartments in a residential building. These private living areas can vary in size from a studio to an apartment with one or more bedrooms, often including a kitchenette. Shared common rooms, dining areas, game rooms, media rooms, libraries, beauty salons, exercise centers, walking trails, and outdoor spaces provide ample opportunities to socialize with other residents.
Services Provided In An Assisted Living Community
Most assisted living communities charge monthly for basic room and board. Additional available services can be included in this monthly amount, or residents can sometimes choose which services they want and pay separate fees based on the level of care they need.
The most common services you’ll find in an assisted living community are outlined below:
Assistance With Basic Activities Of Daily Living
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), ADLs are “essential and routine tasks” important for maintaining a high quality of life. These fundamental skills are required to manage your physical well-being, including:
- Walking
- Eating
- Dressing
- Grooming
- Continence
- Using the toilet
Assisted living communities are often an excellent choice for seniors who do not need extensive or regular medical care but need assistance with ADLs. At Solterra Senior Living, for example, trained, compassionate, and discreet caregivers are available day and night to provide the right level of help with bathing and showering, transferring, getting dressed, and incontinence care. In addition, all residents have access to 24-hour emergency response monitoring for extra peace of mind.
Maintenance-Free Lifestyle
It’s not just about personal services, though. Assisted living communities also enable seniors to enjoy a well-deserved, maintenance-free lifestyle. The staff takes care of many activities the NIH defines as “instrumental ADLs.” Although not as fundamental as basic ADLs, these skills also factor into maintaining a high quality of life and require higher levels of thinking and organization. They include:
- Transportation – driving yourself or navigating public transportation
- Home maintenance – cleaning, laundry, and home repairs
- Communication – using the telephone, email, mail, and other forms of communication
- Medication management – being able to get medication and administer it as directed
- Shopping and cooking – procuring groceries, clothes, and other essentials, as well as prepping meals and keeping a clean kitchen
- Finances – paying bills, managing debts and assets
When you choose Lakeside assisted living at Solterra White Mountains, you won’t have to worry about doing laundry, grocery shopping, driving to appointments, remembering when to take your medicine, dusting, raking the leaves, or making home repairs. Residents living in Lakeside assisted living have access to chef-crafted meals, weekly housekeeping and linen service, chauffeured transportation daily to doctors’ appointments or scheduled outings, and medication management, for instance, if they are dealing with health issues like high blood pressure or diabetes.
Assisted living communities offer convenience and a stress-free lifestyle for seniors who are tired of maintaining a house and want to have more time to pursue their hobbies and interests.
Social Opportunities And Enrichment
Possibly one of the greatest benefits of an assisted living community is found in that last word, “community.” The many amenities at Solterra Senior Living give our residents everything they need to share good times with friends.
There are plenty of scheduled activities to choose from, like movie nights in the media room, guest speakers and town hall meetings, informative classes and discussions, game nights in the game room, art classes, and exercise classes like chair yoga or Zumba. Many residents also like getting together for a meal in the dining room or taking our transportation services to eat out together. Our common areas are great for meet-ups with friends for board games or conversations. A shared morning walk on the grounds is also a popular choice.
For seniors interested in a vibrant social life, assisted living provides easy and plentiful opportunities to socialize. Residents can take advantage of the many amenities to explore their interests within the community through classes and activities, as well as in the Lakeside area by using our transportation services. The connections our residents make with each other and with our staff are meaningful ones.
Contact us today to schedule a tour if you or a loved one is interested in assisted living in Lakeside, AZ. We think you’ll love the beautiful desert oasis of Lakeside as well as our innovative and holistic approach to helping each of our residents live well. We’ve designed our Live Well program to optimize the overall fulfillment, happiness, and health of each person in our community. We can’t wait for you to be a part of it!