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Category: Nursing Home

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Americans Have Dim View of Life in a Nursing Home

Many in survey would choose death over moving to a nursing home. Pexels-photo-209224 (1)

A new survey reveals that 61% of Americans would rather pass away than go to a nursing home, according to Financial Advisor in "Older Americans Would Rather Die Than Live In a Nursing Home."

This creates a lot of potential challenges for stakeholders.

It is an issue for elderly people who might have no choice but to go to a nursing home.

It also creates challenges for family members who act as caregivers for the elderly, since they will want to be even more careful than usual when it is time to suggest that a loved one needs nursing home care.

It also creates a problem for nursing homes, since they need to look for ways to improve their reputation.

That could mean that they need to offer more care which costs money, which would be a challenge to nursing homes and the government.

Reference: Financial Advisor (Dec. 20, 2017) "Older Americans Would Rather Die Than Live In a Nursing Home."

 

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Finding the Right Nursing Home

MP900439289[1]Going into a nursing home can be a frightening experience. It can be made less scary by asking questions and choosing the right nursing home for your family.

No one wants to go into a nursing home.

When we think about what happens in them, we usually imagine nursing homes to be sterile places where people are sent off to be isolated and alone. That stereotype comes to us from the distant past. It is a bad caricature of what nursing homes are like today.

However, nursing homes do come in all sorts of different varieties with many different levels of care and interactions between staff and residents. It is important that the nursing home you choose is the right one for you.

That can be accomplished by asking appropriate questions before deciding on a nursing home, as Next Avenue points out in "18 Questions to Ask Any Nursing Home."

While the questions to ask are too numerous to list here, it is important to understand that the most fundamental questions are not about cost, although that is important. Instead, the most important questions to ask are about how patients live, what activities are available to patients and how staff helps patients with those activities.

The answers to those questions are what truly determine what quality of life will be like in a nursing home and how happy you might be there as a resident.

Before deciding on a nursing home, take a look at the questions to ask and actually ask them of the nursing homes you are considering. That way you can make sure that you are choosing the right place for you.

Reference: Next Avenue (March 15, 2017) "18 Questions to Ask Any Nursing Home."

Elder Law, Nursing Homes

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Do You Really Need to Sell Your House to Afford a Nursing Home? Not With An Estate Plan

Bigstock-Senior-Couple-8161132[1]All too often when one spouse in a marriage needs nursing home care, the couple assumes that the only way they can pay for that care is to sell their home. That might not be the case.

Overall, Americans do a poor job of planning for their estates and making plans should they need long-term care in a nursing home. This is because so many Americans do not ever make any plans at all.

Of those that do, many choose to make their own plans and that is a mistake. Those who seek out professional planners normally have good plans.

For the many who have no plans or who have bad plans, they often receive a rude awakening when their spouse needs care in a nursing home. Many of these Americans do not think they have any other option but to sell the family home so the government will pay for the care under Medicaid.

However, that is not always the only option.

This issue was taken up recently by the Boston Globe in “Seniors have more options than selling their home.”

Before selling their homes to pay for nursing home care, seniors are advised to seek out the services of an elder law attorney. The attorney can assess the situation to determine what other options, if any, are available.  At Profit Law firm, during crisis planning, we will review the options to see if a trust, deed transfer or another option works.

The even better option is to plan ahead.

Get a professionally crafted estate plan that includes the possibility of long-term care in a nursing home. Doing so will make it far less likely that having a spouse go into a nursing home will necessitate selling the family home.  Call us for a consultation today.

Reference: Boston Globe (Aug. 20, 2016) “Seniors have more options than selling their home.”