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Assisted Living for seniors: a Perfect Place for Care and Independence
Assisted Living for seniors: a Perfect Place for Care and Independence
As a person enters his or her retirement years it is expected that he or she requires some assistance with daily activities. Family members accustomed to business and office work may find it difficult to take proper care of seniors at home. They often forget to provide seniors medicine in time, help them in getting a bath or dress. For such families ‘Assisted Living Facility’ (ALF) is a perfect choice for seniors.
Assisted living for seniors maintains their independence and at the same time helps them on their day to day activities. Thus, assisted living offers best of the both worlds for all seniors. An ALF can provide complete care and help seniors who need assistance in daily activities like bathing, medication and dressing. Such care never takes away their freedom of independence. They are not bound to remain confined in the premises of the facility.
Assisted Living Facility therefore is a middle ground between nursing home and independent living. Every assisted living tries to promote as much self-sufficiency as the resident is capable of to all seniors. Most assisted living facilities offer round the clock supervision and plethora of services to maintain space, privacy and dignity that nursing homes fail. All these facilities are available at an affordable cost.
Nearly 30,000 plus assisted living facilities are operating in the US at present. Such a facility is also called – personal care homes, domiciliary care, community residences, sheltered housings, and residential care facilities. Personal care of an assisted living facility includes eating, getting around, medicine care, dressing, bathing, toileting, and grooming. Assisted living facilities don’t offer extensive medical care. The staff and caretakers only remind and help in taking medicines prescribed on time, but don’t offer medical health facilities like nursing homes.
Costs of an Assisted Living Facility
Assisted living for seniors are operated and owned by both non-profit and for-profit organizations. Therefore, assisted living facilities would cost you $900 to $4,500 a month. The cost actually depends on the place where you live. It varies from state to state in the US. However the costs of assisted living for seniors are less than nursing home cares and home health services.
Choosing the Right Assisted Living Facility
Before you choose an assisted living facility for seniors in your family consider some factors that would determine how reliable an ALF is. Evaluating of a facility will determine whether it is suitable to the lifestyle of your family’s seniors or not. Assessing the following points will help you select a good ALF:
Friendliness and warm nature of employees.
Level of independence and freedom.
If the facility is licensed?
Hygiene and cleanliness of the ALF.
Security provisions in the ALF.
Level of privacy.
Availability of 24 hour emergency facility.
Safety equipments and facilities for physically handicapped.
Assisted Living Solutions – Wayne Dyer “What Are You Creating Right Now?”
WHAT ARE YOU CREATING RIGHT NOW?
“You create your thoughts, your thoughts create your intentions, and your intentions create your reality.”
Dr. Wayne Dyer
For years I’ve been fascination by the human brain and its vast potential. First from a psychological v.p. & now from a spiritual view point, not in the religious sense, but in the more mystical/creative realm. I’m convinced that our ability to create begins in our brain; God created us to create. Creation begins with one tiny thought. It may come from within you, or someone else, and once you accept it as yours and begin to think about it, you’ve started the process of creation. The more emotion you have with that thought the more powerful is your ability to attract what you want. Once your brain gets the go-ahead from you, it springs into action and clicks in to perform your command perfectly. That is why it’s extremely important to be aware of your own thoughts and the words you say. Your brain doesn’t sort out positive from the negative; it waits for your command. It simply acts on your thought.
I’ve spent half of my life learning about and teaching how powerful the brain is and how important our thoughts are. When I was a kid I used to hear my father speak of the dreaded “evil eye” in his native Sicily. I snickered and thought it was a bunch of nonsense even though the stories made the hair on the back of my neck stand at attention. I’ve since learned about the power of the mind and believe that if I told you that something terrible was going to happen to you, and you believed me, YOU could make it happen simply by the power/energy/focus you give it; your own mind would work to carry out whatever you feared.
I believe that the power of the mind can also make us ill, or worse. One of my favorite examples of the power of suggestion is this one: During the winter months we are ambushed with news that the flu is epidemic. We’re sure we can’t escape it so we begin to worry. If we get the sniffles we’re certain we’ve got something that’s going around. We reinforce our fear by thinking that we have a cold, and we tell everyone who will listen. (It may have only been hay fever.) Next, we think we will be really sick, probably run a fever and by the end of the week we are certain we will be in bed vomiting or worse. Well, guess what? I believe that since we’ve programmed ourselves for a week full of illness— that is exactly what we will get. We’ve created it with our powerful minds. The brain has taken instructions and followed them exactly as we’ve prescribed it.
Arthritis is one of my pet peeves. If we break or sprain something doctors are quick to say arthritis will set in. My doc knows “I don’t do arthritis.” She snickers. I refer to it as the nasty “A” word. People take possession of arthritis as soon as they think they have it. I.E.: A younger friend’s fingers began aching; her mother had arthritis so she was certain she’d inherited it. (How many of us do that?) She took possession of it and referred to it as “my arthritis.” We had a little discussion and it “amazingly” disappeared! I believe strongly that it isn’t necessary to talk about any symptom or medical sentence your doctor has decreed for you. To acknowledge it is to reinforce it. Taking possession of it and making it yours only gives it permission to proceed. Once we start talking about it to others, it grabs that energy/power to accelerate. That energy can better be used to create positive thoughts of healing for yourself. Get the needed treatment. Then if you must tell someone, say, “I’m catching healing,” and let it go. You can tell those symptoms that they are not welcome in your body and to flee. You must believe it, however, and you must be persistent, for the habit of illness is like a child who pushes the envelope to see if you mean business.. It’s up to you to stick in there and show the old habit who is boss. It takes a while to break old habits and patterns, so don’t expect the symptoms to disappear quickly. Like a spoiled child who is suddenly being disciplined, there will be rebellion within. Remember to put lots of emotion behind your thoughts of healing and be persistent.
We are never too old or too sick or too busy, to have creative minds. We “create” every second of every day and it is either negative or positive —depleting energy or increasing energy.
We deplete our energy if we focus on a negative situation, be it our own or someone else’s. Our energy level plummets and a cloud of doom and gloom cloaks us. When we change our thought pattern to those that are sunny, energy levels are elevated to a healthier state; we are less vulnerable to illness & to attracting negative thinking people into our lives.. Thoughts are contagious. Choose wisely.
“As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit the air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a bright, happy, or serene countenance can only result from the free admittance into the mind of thoughts of joy and goodwill and serenity.” — James Allen 1864-1912 (note the dates—this is not “new age” enlightenment, but time-proven.)
Assisted Living San Francisco Bay Area, Ca
The Chateau of Pleasant Hill, California is a senior living community that offers assisted living, Alzheimer’s care, dementia care, home care and a whole host of senior care services.
Ruby MacDonald writes a monthly column in the Senior Insights Newsletter and it has become a favorite amongst the elderly residents who say that Ruby’s positive words and inspirations make them feel wonderful.
Ruby’s word for the day:
EMPOWERED LIVING by Ruby MacDonald
HOW WELL ARE YOU . . . HEARING ?
Empowered living includes the use of our very important five senses. “Hearing” is one of those senses. It’s one fifth. For those who cannot hear, one-fifth of their senses are impaired.
I do not take hearing for granted because my hearing became impaired around midlife. I speak from experience when I say that not being able to hear easily causes many problems and changes in lifestyle. For instance, do you hesitate answering the phone? Or do you only use the phone when it’s an absolute necessity? Has your social life receded and slowly turned you into an introvert? Do you stay away from social gatherings because you can’t hear in a crowd?
Rush Limbaugh, the nationally syndicated radio talk show host, experienced a rapid loss of hearing and within three months he was deaf in one ear and had an 80% loss in the other. He could no longer understand radio, TV, or the voices of call-in listeners. He has a severe bi-laterial sensorineural hearing loss due to an autoimmune inner ear disease. AIED causes less than 1% of all cases of sensorineural hearing loss; most cases are due to aging, noise exposure, or inherited hearing loss and develop very gradually. Most patients respond to early treatment of steroids and benefit from the use of hearing aids; some need cochlear implants.
Today there is little or no excuse for anyone to be hearing impaired even though statistics show that most people with hearing loss do nothing about it! A healthy, positive approach is to take charge of your hearing healthcare and find a way to hear as well as possible again. Nothing can be done until you admit you have a hearing loss.
Which type are you? Do you consider your hearing “good enough” to get by on?” It doesn’t matter that you force everyone to repeat nearly everything they say? Or, do you want to hear as well as possible? I hope you cherish the latter and want to enjoy hearing to the fullest.
Here are a few empowering secrets to hearing: Wear hearing aids in one or both ears. Lipreading is helpful as a third hearing aid. There are telephone and TV amplifiers. Ask people to look at you and speak more slowly. In a group, always sit by a wall to block sounds.
Find a good audiologist, one recommended by a friend rather than selected at random from the phone book. They will evaluate your hearing and hearing needs
SENIOR LIVING SOLUTIONS
Senior Living Solutions Overview:Once submitted, you can sit back, relax, and leave the work to us! Within hours, we will email you valuable information that will help you not only understand the different senior housing and care options available but also supply you with vital information that will educate you on what to look for and what questions to ask before making any commitment. And once your request has been assessed, a qualified retirement counselor will contact you directly by your preferred method of communication, via phone or email to further discuss how to best address your senior housing and eldercare needs.
Our mission is to offer you the very best in Senior Living and Senior Care service. To help ensure this, all providers are screened and vetted prior to participating in our program, so you can feel confident knowing that you are being referred only to quality and safe organizations. And unlike most online referral programs, with Senior Living Solutions you are under NO OBLIGATION to buy anything, ever.Senior Living and Senior Care Services Available to You:
When it comes to caring for an elderly loved one, a variety of different services may be required. Senior Living Solutions is ready to help with each and every one of them. Here are just a few of the services available through Senior Living Solutions:
*Assisted Living Facilities
*Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Facilities
*Independent Senior Apartments
*Home Care
*Short Term Respite and/or vacation staysFrequently Asked Questions About Senior Living Solutions:
*Am I obligated to buy anything?
No. Never. By completing a Needs Assessment survey, you are under NO obligation to purchase anything. We simply provide you with options and leave the decision entirely up to you as to whether you would like to follow up with any of the network service or product providers who respond to your request.
How are Senior Living Solutions providers screened?
Depending on the particular industry, each eldercare provider specialty has its own set of standards and certifications. In order to participate in the Senior Living Solutions network, providers must provide evidence that they are legally authorized to provide the services and/or products they sell to consumers. Furthermore, each and every provider is required at all times to meet Senior Living Solutions Provider Participation Standards and abide by Senior Living Solutions Terms of Use. If, for any reason, Senior Living Solutions learns that a provider has failed to meet or abide by before mentioned Standards and/or Terms of Use, the provider will be disqualified from continued participation in the Senior Living Solutions program.
What if there are no participating providers who meet my needs in my geographic area?
If there are no providers in the Senior Living Solutions network that meet your specific requirements, we will promptly notify you and give you the option to either save or permanently remove your information from the Senior Living Solutions secure database. By opting to save your information in our database, we can notify you at a later date if a provider enters our network and is right for your personal needs.
What if we’re not satisfied with the service we receive from the provider?
Because all providers who participate in the Senior Living Solutions network are independently owned and operated, all customer satisfaction issues and/or complaints must be handled through the individual provider or company. To help make sure you receive the appropriate level of attention, Senior Living Solutions requires all participating providers to have a published policy regarding customer dispute resolution. If your complaint has gone unaddressed or you are dissatisfied with the response from one of our participating providers, please let us know. Providers who demonstrate a pattern of unresolved customer satisfaction complaints and/or problems can be terminated from participating in our program.
If I don’t pay for this service, who does?
Senior care providers pay a fee to be able to participate in the Senior Living Solutions program, allowing us to offer you the highest quality matching service at absolutely no cost to you.
Find local Senior Living Solutions providers and senior services
Words Are The Most Powerful Thing In The Universe! – Senior Living Insights
Words are the most powerful thing in the universe.
Senior Living Insights By Ruby MacDonald
WORDS ARE POWERFUL. How we use them is most important. Positive words are powerful enough to bring healing. Negative words have the power to kill our spirit as illustrated in a newspaper article which clearly demonstrates how powerful and healing just a few simple words can be. After you’ve read this column perhaps, you’ll be moved to say some healing words to someone who waits, hoping to hear them.
Maybe you read the article in the Contra Costa Times on July 3, 2002; the headlines read: WOMAN RELIEVED TO HEAR SON’S KILLER APOLOGIZE. There was also a photo of Liz Kiepert—smiling!
You may remember back to 1998 when an 11-year-old boy shot and killed Larry Kiepert, a 13 year old neighbor boy who was playing basketball in his own yard. The eleven year old served four years for voluntary manslaughter.. This week when he attended his parole hearing, so did Liz Kiepert, the mother of the boy who was killed.
According to the news article written by Contra Costa Times Staff Writer, Celeste Ward, Liz Kiepert had suffered depression, anxiety, panic attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder after she watched her son be shot to death. She had said she wished the boy would have to serve the entire 14-year sentence and she did not understand how he could be rehabilitated when her family was still torn apart.
As the hearing date approached, Liz Kiepert wasn’t sure she wanted to be there. Two doctors had advised her against it but she needed to be there to vindicate her son. She went alone. What occurred at the hearing is the best thing that could have happened, short of bringing her son back to life.
Moments before his release, the now 15 year-old boy had something to say. Liz says, “He turned around to face me and at first was mumbling. He said, ‘Mrs. Kiepert, if there was anything I could do differently, I would. I wish I could bring Larry back.’ Then he started to cry, and I asked the judge if I could hug him. That came out of my heart. When I saw him crying, I thought, ‘He’s a child.’ I hugged him 10 to 20 seconds and he kept whispering in my ear, ‘I’m so sorry.’ I told him Larry would forgive him, and to go make a good life for himself. I had the whole courtroom in tears.”
Liz Kiepert felt the years of bitterness and anger melt away as the judge released the boy. She said, “It was a relief. He said what I wanted to hear all these years. I felt like a weight was taken off my shoulders. Now I can go forward.” Liz Kiepert has returned to work after a long absence. A photo accompanying the newspaper article showed Liz smiling. Her family and friends said they noticed a difference in her in that the anguished look she had carried was gone. Finally, the weight had been lifted.
The weight of holding resentment and not being able to forgive is perhaps one of the most destructive emotions we can cling to. Even when we feel it is justified, the end result is the damage it does to our bodies and minds. We always have a choice, just as Liz Kiepert had. She chose to forgive and free both herself and the young man who still has a life to live.
WORDS. Just a few simple but meaningful words have put a smile back on Liz’s face and life back into her spirit. As you’ve seen, words are powerful.
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