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Aging is inevitable and when that time comes, you would probably have one question in mind: how do you qualify for assisted living? This form of living arrangement is one of the best options that you can find today, so it’s very important to learn about what exactly is assisted living and what the qualifications are for it.

What is Assisted Living?

Assisted living is essentially an option for long-term care that offers the right environment for seniors to live safely and independently while still having access to skilled nursing care whenever they need it.

When you live in an assisted living facility, you can function freely and live an independent life yet you can still enjoy the comforts of having skilled staff around if you need care and assistance.

What are the Services Offered in Assisted Living?

It’s very important to remember that not all living facilities offer the same services, which is why you need to look at your options first. Most of these facilities, however, guarantee these basic services:

• Meal preparation
• Health and wellness programs and facilities
• 24-hour supervision, assistance, and support as needed by residents
• Housekeeping, home maintenance, and laundry service
• Medication administration
• Social, recreational and community services
• Dementia and disability care

Depending on your needs, you’ll be able to access most or all of these services. One of the biggest benefits of assisted living over other living arrangements is that you’ll be given as much freedom as possible in choosing the services you want to receive.

This means that you are still in control of your routine and lifestyle while making sure that you have all the services that you need when you need them.

How do you Qualify for Assisted Living? 

Like other long-term care facilities, you will be asked by the assisted living facility to submit these materials if you wish to be a resident:

• A physical assessment including your medical history that should be fulfilled by your physician at least a month or less before moving into the facility.
• Different facility admissions forms that include the services that will be provided for you and their corresponding fees. You should be able to agree with all these terms before you can move into the facility.
• A functional assessment will determine the level of independent daily activities that you can do without assistance and those where you need the help of qualified personnel. This assessment should also indicate your capacity to interact with other residents and will be used by the nurse or manager in creating your care plan.
• A care plan that outlines all the services that should be given to you. Remember that you can make changes to this care plan if needed and depending on your preferences.

Although growing old is inevitable, living a comfortable life is always your choice. So if you want to enjoy the best years of your life as a senior, you should consider moving into an assisted living facility in the future.

Providence Place of Fremont is proud to offer its Assisted Living Services to Fremont NE and its Surrounding areas and Cities: Inglewood, Cedar Bluffs, Ames, Leshara, Arlington, Fontanelle, Nickerson, Telbasta, and North Bend

Here’s an unfortunate fact: between 2000 and 2018, deaths caused by HIV, heart disease and stroke have decreased significantly while those from Alzheimer’s disease increased by 146.2%.

One of the biggest fears equated with aging is dementia and eventually, Alzheimer’s that has taken the lives of millions of elderly patients around the world.

This is why the goal of every memory assisted living facility today is to help residents improve their memory and hopefully slow down the progression of their disease.

The Study

A pilot study was conducted on seven residents in a Midwestern memory assisted living facility to test an intervention designed for memory improvement.

The participants took a six-session memory program based on data from qualitative research that identified the most common memory challenges for residents.

The researchers used both the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test for performance and Memory Complaint in Age-Associated Impairment (MAC-Q) for memory self-efficacy as tools for comparing data before and after the intervention was introduced.

After the program, the residents showed an improvement in memory self-efficacy for remembering names, lists of items, facts, and phone numbers. Three out of the seven participants also showed an improvement in recalling first and/or last names.

This study revealed that cognitive interventions that are designed specifically for the elderly population in memory assisted living can offer significant improvements to their memory.

Although ongoing tests on a larger number of participants still need to be done to determine if the said interventions will result in some positive effects on daily functioning, it offers huge hopes for people in memory assisted living facilities and for the loved ones of patients in these facilities that somehow they can enjoy a better quality of life and not be completely debilitated by their disease.

The other Initiatives to Boost Memory

As medical experts continue to work on interventions that will help improve the memory of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, memory assisted living communities are also implementing these lifestyle interventions that could slow cognitive decline and boost overall brain health:

• Nutrition: Most assisted living communities follow a cooking program that’s geared towards brain-boosting nutrition. Some facilities adapt the Mediterranean-style diet that includes vegetables, dark berry fruits, whole grains, olive oil, and seafood.

This is because some studies have shown that eating a Mediterranean diet can help lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or make it worse.

• Exercise: Research shows that exercise is not only beneficial for the body but also the mind. In fact, exercise has been proven to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s and delay its onset.

Exercise routines can include yoga, strength and cardiovascular training, and aerobics.

Memory assisted living facilities all to have one goal to help promote the best quality of life for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

But at the end of the day, their care should be a collaborative effort between carers and loved ones to make sure that they have the best time while staying in these residences.

Providence Place of Fremont is proud to offer its Assisted Living Services to Fremont NE and its Surrounding areas and Cities: Inglewood, Cedar Bluffs, Ames, Leshara, Arlington, Fontanelle, Nickerson, Telbasta, and North Bend

Alzheimer’s disease continues to affect millions of people around the world. In the United States alone, 5.8 million individuals of all ages are living with Alzheimer’s dementia in 2019 and the number keeps on growing every minute. One of the biggest challenges for patients with Alzheimer’s disease is the increasing difficulty to perform activities of daily living. This is why facilities for Alzheimer’s focus highly on the elderly’s need for assistance while still giving them as much independence as possible.

What are Activities of Daily Living?

When a senior starts to experience dementia brought about by Alzheimer’s disease, he also starts to have difficulty performing tasks that were otherwise routine when he was younger. Activities of Daily Living (ADL) refer to self-care tasks done by the elderly and they are divided into Personal Activities of Daily Living (PADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL).

PADLs include activities such as dressing up, grooming, going to the toilet and eating while IADLs include chores like doing the laundry, cooking, shopping and managing household finances.

As the disease progresses, the affected individual also requires more assistance in performing his personal activities. There also comes a time when this need for assistance becomes increasingly often that the senior is recommended to stay in one of the facilities for Alzheimer’s where he can be given the right support and care he needs, especially when he’s living alone or his family cannot keep up with care any more.

What can be expected with assistance for ADLs?

People suffering from Alzheimer’s disease need help with ADLs for various reasons. Some simply don’t remember how to cook their own food or clean themselves while others may have challenges in accomplishing these tasks due to restrictions in movement and coordination. These difficulties also increase as dementia from Alzheimer’s disease worsens.

For instance, an elderly with dementia may only require a reminder to brush his teeth or take a bath during the early stages of the disease. But as it progresses, the same individual may then need assistance in some aspects of these activities including putting toothpaste or using shampoo.

Eventually, a time will come when the elderly would forget how to brush his teeth or take a bath altogether that a professional caregiver needs to do it for him.

What is the role of a facility in assisting with ADLs?

Going through a progressive disease like Alzheimer’s is no easy feat for anyone, especially the elderly. They may have several challenges in doing even the most mundane tasks because they couldn’t understand instructions, forget what they need to do or just lose interest in doing anything altogether.

This is when facilities for Alzheimer’s take over to make sure that proper care is given to these individuals and their ADLs completed with the right amount of assistance they require.

Alzheimer’s disease may be robbing off the memories of millions of individuals, especially the elderly. But something can always be done to help these people live their best life by assisting them with their ADLs and other tasks.

Providence Place of Fremont is proud to offer its Assisted Living Services to Fremont NE and its Surrounding areas and Cities: Inglewood, Cedar Bluffs, Ames, Leshara, Arlington, Fontanelle, Nickerson, Telbasta, and North Bend

Alzheimer’s disease is affecting more people than we could ever imagine. In the United States alone, an estimated 5.8 million people suffer from Alzheimer’s and that number will keep on increasing as the American population gets older.

While there is still no known cure for Alzheimer’s disease, so much effort has been given by researchers and scientists in finding ways to detect the disease in its early stages. This will give patients the chance to recover fully with the help of facilities for Alzheimer’s and prevent irreversible brain damage.

Can Early Detection make a Difference in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients?

Alzheimer’s disease has left the medical world puzzled for years. Despite decades and millions spent on research and testing, there has still been no known cure for the disease and more often than not, diagnosis is done during the late stages of the disease process when signs and symptoms are already more prevalent.

Although facilities for Alzheimer’s have done an excellent job in giving patients the best quality of life despite their condition, the late diagnosis means loss of what could have been meaningful years in the lives of patients if they had been diagnosed and treated early.

Can Alzheimer’s Disease be Finally Detected in the Blood?

With the goal to find the earliest way to detect Alzheimer’s, researchers have been working on one of its most promising paths, the use of biological markers or “biomarkers.”

These are traces in the blood that could help detect the presence of the disease even before signs and symptoms start to appear.

According to medicinal chemist Derek Lowe, “every single Alzheimer’s agent for the past 25 years has failed egregiously. If we’re going to have any hope at all, we’ve got to get in as early as possible.”

This year is all about doing just that as several companies have announced trials to help determine the possibility of using biomarkers in detecting Alzheimer’s disease.

Leading the effort is Novartis that announced its partnership with the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix to test two drugs that will focus on targeting the amyloid plaques in the brain that’s distinctive in Alzheimer’s patients.

The trial will involve more than 1,300 individuals between 60-75 years old carrying the APOE4 gene that puts them at a higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers are also working on molecular screening to determine if collective panels will help determine the presence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease during its early stages.

Studies from Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC, King’s College London and the University of Oxford have covered the possibility of molecular screening in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms start to appear.

Is the Future Bright for Alzheimer’s Disease Detection?

According to Howard Federoff of Georgetown University Medical Center, “it’s possible that we may actually find therapeutics that delay, among those who test positive, the emergence of symptoms.”

A lot of effort has been put into Alzheimer’s research to help give better outcomes for patients suffering from this debilitating disease.

Providence Place of Fremont is proud to offer its Assisted Living Services to Fremont NE and its Surrounding areas and Cities: Inglewood, Cedar Bluffs, Ames, Leshara, Arlington, Fontanelle, Nickerson, Telbasta, and North Bend

You always knew that stepping into your senior years would mean entering a new chapter in your life, one that’s different from what you’ve been through before because of some changes that you may need to go through that may entail moving into a senior housing facility.

Now that you’re already in this phase, one of the things that you’ve been thinking about is how you’d want to live in an apartment community where you can mingle with other seniors. This led you to do some research about senior housing.

What exactly is Senior Housing?

Senior housing is a type of housing that caters to individuals that meet the requirements codified by the Fair Housing Act and the Housing for Older Persons Act. All occupants in this community must be 62 years or older but one individual who is 55 years old or older should be in at least 80% of the occupied units. A senior housing facility is also designed for elderly individuals under a local, federal or state government program.

What is the Difference between Senior Housing and Assisted Living?

You may be torn between choosing to go to senior housing or an assisted living community, but it all depends on your needs. An assisted living community may qualify as a senior housing facility, but a senior housing community doesn’t need to provide the special services that assisted living offers for residents with physical disabilities. So, if you’re choosing between these two options, think about what your needs are first to help you make the right decision.

What are the Qualifications for Senior Housing?

In general, senior housing looks at your age, but you also need to qualify for the following:

• 55 is the youngest age for exemption in senior housing, but you can be younger than 55 as long as your spouse or another family member belongs to that age. You may also qualify to live in the 20% part of the senior housing community where there are no age restrictions. You can then move to the 80% when you or a member of your household turns 55.

• If you are applying for the 62 and older area of the senior housing community, you and every other member of your household except for your nurse, attendant or other healthcare providers should be at least 62 years old. You won’t qualify to live in these buildings even if only one member of the family is below 62.

• Once you’ve decided to apply for senior housing, you will be asked to show proof of your age. This includes your birth certificate, passport, driver’s license, military identification, immigration card or other legally accepted documentation. An application affidavit asserting that at least one occupant in your apartment is 55 years old may also be accepted if you can’t provide a valid verification document, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Making the decision to live in a senior housing facility is a huge step towards ensuring that you enjoy the best years of your life. At the end of the day, you have the options. You only have to make the right choices.

Providence Place of Fremont is proud to offer its Assisted Living Services to Fremont NE and its Surrounding areas and Cities: Inglewood, Cedar Bluffs, Ames, Leshara, Arlington, Fontanelle, Nickerson, Telbasta, and North Bend