Living in Assisted Living -- A Residents Perspective

by Lon Tanner

Preparing For Assisted Living—

If you are now in your 50’s /60’s you stand an excellent chance of requiring some kind of Assisted Living in your later years. Why take the chance of having to sell your home and liquidate your assets and income.

The best thing you could do would be to buy a Long Term Care Policy through your employer if available, or independently on your own. Having such insurance will help preserve your assets and income. Such insurance is expensive, but considerably less so if purchased in your 50’s & 60’s.

My Moving Here--

Since my moving into the Oakmont Assisted Living/Memory Care/Alzheimer’s facility two years ago, I have had to go through a substantial learning experience. I made the arrangement my self instead of everything being decided on by a CARE TAKER/Friend/Family Member which is the usual scenario.

I live in a very comfortable one bedroom/one bath/living room/kitchenette apartment on the second floor of a two-floor facility. I am fortunate to have retained some degree of computer and technology experience which has made my life easier and more comfortable and will be discussed in another Blog.

Health/Mobility --

Like most of the residents, I am living here because of health issues that create symptoms requiring some degree of assistance. Many of the residents have some degree of hearing loss and wear one or more hearing aids. My hearing loss is severe and makes certain social interactions difficult if not impossible. I cannot hear music and sorely miss it.

Two of my medical conditions make it necessary to use a walker. A cane would be nice but balance difficulty requires a walker. Many of the residents use walkers and some wheelchairs, electrical and mechanical. I some times think we could use a traffic cop to direct walker and wheel chair movement in hallways and elevator. I am envious of some of the 90-year-olds that are very mobile.

I voluntarily gave up driving the year prior to moving here due to Peripheral Neuropathy affecting my legs. I started using Uber for my appointments until discovering that my AL facility could take me to scheduled appointments.

Paying for Assisted Living--

Living here is expensive and my monthly costs are in excess of $6,000 per month. Fortunately, my Long Term Care Insurance Policy and monthly income is sufficient to pay ALL my monthly living costs. Some residents have had to liquidate their assets or have family members pay.

A resident could very well outlive all their assets.

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