It's Your Move: Choices for Senior Living: Will you age in Your Home or at a Retirement Home?

By Gail Lawley

The lists in this book will help you choose between staying at home, moving in with your children, or moving to a retirement facility. It guides you through the process letting you compare benefits and costs of each choice. It provides a wealth of information to ensure you make the right decision for your situation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9780989834308

Book preview

It's Your Move: Choices for Senior Living

Gail Lawley

Gail Lawley Publisher

Tucson, AZ

All Rights Reserved   Copyright 2013 © Gail Lawley

All rights reserved.  The paperback book was self-published by Gail Lawley  using print-on-demand from OutskirtsPress.  The electronic version  was formatted using Pressbooks.com and published by Gail Lawley using BookBaby.   No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without the express permission of the author, Gail Lawley.

If you would like to reprint, excerpt, photocopy, record or any future means of reproducing text, please contact the author at http://movechoices.com/contact.html.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my children Kirsten and Brian

with the hope that it will help them help me

when I must make my decision.

Contents

Dedication

Disclaimer

Acknowledgement

Lists

Preface

Introduction

1. Early Planning

Why You Choose

2. Types of Housing

Whose Home? CCRC? or?

3. Other Considerations

Present vs Future Costs

4. Making the Move

Costs, Visits, Comparisons

References

Computer Terms

Disclaimer

It’s Your Move: Choices for Senior Living by Gail Lawley

All Rights Reserved

v4.0

ISBN: 978-0-9898343-0-8

Website:

http://MoveChoices.com

Cover Design: Kelly Lawley

Published in the United States

The opinions Expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author . The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

Electronic version created using Pressbooks.com

Acknowledgement

I want to thank Margaret and Hu Bath, Joyce Hardin, Ernie Schwam, Ann and Lou Roscoe, Dorothy Jackson, Suzanne Kavanaugh, Anne Bonn—and other residents, friends and workers at various facilities for their time and input.

In addition, I am very grateful to the administrators who took time out of their busy schedules to answer my interview questions: Cydney Turner at Handmaker; Gale Morgan and Kathryn L Brod of Mather Lifeways; Tim Carmichael with La Posada, and many others who answered e-mail questions and phone calls.

A special thanks to Elizabeth Ohm for her advice on content organization, grammar and reference formatting, Curt and Betsy Blanchard and the others who made title suggestions. A special thanks to Craig Smith for encouraging me to publish these lists.

Lists

Chapter 2 Types of Housing

List #1 What things are most important to me?

List #2 Adult Congregate Housing

List #3 Independent Living

List #4 CCRC Continuing Care Retirement Communities

List #5 Personal-Care Home

List #6 Assisted Living

List #7 Family Help

List #8 Adult Daycare Facilities

List #9 Adult Daycare

List #10 Hiring Help

List #11 Nursing Facility

Chapter 3 Other Considerations

List #12 Pre-screening Facility Costs

List #13 Cost Comparisons: Present and Projected

List #14 Projected Costs: Home-care

List #15 Geriatric Care Manager

List #16 Hiring Home Care Helpers

Chapter 4 Making the Move

List #17 Availability, Finances, Complaints

List #18 Facility Costs

List #19 Initial Cost

List #20 Conveniences

List #21 Company Info, Rankings, and Legal

List #22 Visits

List #23 Ask the Residents

List #24 Observe the Staff

List #25 Exterior Aesthetics

List #26 Interior Aesthetics

List #27 Unit Info

List #28 Special Needs

List #29 Medical and Social Services

List #30 Dining

List #31 Amenities and Guests

List #32 Activities

List #33 Before Admission to a Nursing Home

Preface

Please check my website frequently as I will add information, places and articles frequently – http://MoveChoices.com.

The purpose of this book is to provide you with a guide to resources that will help you decide how, why, and where you want to live as you age. I hope it will help you decide whether to stay at home or help you to find a place that fits your lifestyle, desires, and budget.

Please take the time to look at the resources I have listed in the appendices, and/or to call them and get their literature.

As you know, where you’ll live for the rest of your life is not a decision to be made lightly. It’s well worth giving up a few golf games, tennis sessions or lunches with your friends to have the rest of your life planned—as well as you can plan at this point in your life.

My experiences and research made me realize how much easier this process is if it’s done while you’re still healthy.

According to Home Instead, we have a Senior Care Information Gap[1]:

The Home Instead study found seniors and their adult children:

• Know little about the care options that are available

• Are badly misguided about the costs of those options

• Are inadequately informed about what financial resources are needed to cover the cost of care.

The research I did for this book included reading all the books listed in the references. I especially recommend:

Long-Term Care: How to Plan and Pay for It, by Joseph L. Matthews[2].

Where Should I Live When I Retire? A Guide to Continuing-Care Communities, by Bernice Kohn Hunt[3].

I know it’s weird for an author to recommend another book, but these have a different focus from my book. My focus is decision-making and comparing facilities; their focus is planning and paying for what you choose.

There is so much good information in these books, that I urge you to buy a copy or find a copy at your

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