Retirement communities seem like a great idea on the surface: like a cruise ship for seniors. Collective opportunities, wellness opportunities, fine dining, extra holiday functions, maintenance services, housekeeping; some have nurse stations, and some have full time Lvn's rehearse a picture of faultless care just waiting to put it's arms nearby your aging parent.
You and your parent tour a facility. The habitancy are so nice. The place looks like a fine hotel. Everyone is so happy to see you. It must be heaven. Oops, trying to avoid that! But as the last stop on route, except of procedure for some of you, not a bad place to hang your silk scarf, and withhold hose.
"That beautiful apartment is how much?" ,000 dollars a month..."and up!!!!????" You swallow. Subtle, but hard. Your parent imagines friends,fun, privilege, bridge players, and chocolate. So where does your rent go? I will give you a hint: it is not dining services, or housekeeping, or maintenance, or capital improvements of condition care, or activities. In many upscale senior living communities, you may be surprised to discover that over 40-50% of the operational dollars go to marketing and not to services that directly benefit your parent.
The infer is simple, senior residents move into these communities when they have an mean of 5 years left to live. Sad, but factual. So possible in all "retirement communities" is alot of resident turnover, even when residents are content within their community. Just imagine the numbers, when the residents are not content.
When a resident dies, an apartment becomes empty, and corporate revenues shrink. Some corporations have silent partners (investors), who do not appreciate declines in occupancy levels. Less occupants, less profits. So a enormous amount of your rent dollars are spent attracting a continual stream of new residents. 40-50% of the annual allocation at the property level is spent on marketing, and the recruitment of time to come residents. There is even greater turnover, of course, when the services are so-so. I was given .40 per someone per meal, based on two meals per day in one such upscale seclusion society in La Jolla California, as recently as 2007. Marketing first, nutrition? Somewhere much farther down the list.
The caretaking mission represented by these corporations is unquestionably not their mission. Profit, not people, again is the mission. The mission of most of these communities is Not to keep your parents content with cruise ship five star services, no matter what they say to you, while your "free" marketing tour and lunch. The corporate mission is to keep the construction full, originate large revenues, make enormous profits,purchase more properties, turn them in to more goldmines. Oh, the hours spent in departmental leadership meetings, working on the shape of the spin.
Until late 2007, I functioned as the Dietary Director for one such "for-profit" corporation. This Carlsbad company, proudly announced, at the 2006 dietary seminar for all dietary directors, that they made a Net profit of million dollars with their 23 properties nationwide. More shocking is the fact that some of their properties went much of the year below full occupancy. You can just imagine the profit at full occupancy. Al ot of profit for a enterprise that on my campus, face of dining services, had a lot of resident turnover, unhappiness with other services, and four menagerial director turnovers in two years! It is only about occupancy folks. The rest is marketing.
I am not alone in my comprehension of just how senior living communities operate. But, habitancy on the inside of the industry, do not speak up because: they are care-givers, and need these jobs. Some, like me, come to be disillusioned care-givers, and leave the industry. Find the honest broker on your marketing tour, and call them later for a personal chat. They will tell you. Most workers, and local property leadership in these associates are disillusioned too. Or they have darker motives for staying in silence.
There are many things I discovered in my tenures, that have turned me off to seclusion communities as a viable time to come choice for aging adults. I have not even touched on the mean direct care-giver to resident ratios of 1 to 20 :at the very best. This ratio is at the very root of the problem. Try caring for twenty parents with two hundred challenges daily per parent, and you will get the picture. The cloth just does not stretch to cover the need.
Higher corporate costs drive operational changes that should concern adult children seeking quality residential solutions to caring for their aging parents. I do not believe that all upscale seclusion communities unquestionably fulfill their care giving promises: and today there are a lot of other alternatives you should also consider.For this much rent ( and more), similar services, are offered for this inclusive price: you should, and do expect five star level housekeeping, fine dining faultless with extra holiday programming; wellness programs that focus on fall prevention, strength training, and equilibrium education for your parent; maintenance (toilets do have their problems, so do air conditioners/heaters, elevators).
If you are still considering an upscale independent living society of 100 to 500 occupants, consider this: every year, you can expect a cost of living growth of 5-9 % in these communities: either you like it or not. And trust me, the corporation can all the time defend the reasons for the increase. You will have only the choice to pay or move.
Are independent living communities unquestionably full of independent living seniors? seclusion communities usually bill themselves as housing for independent living residents: those with minimal mobility and functionality issues. But in the last twelve years, I have seen less truly independent residents, and more very dependent, borderline assisted living or early dementia type residents move in. The corporation is motivated naturally by the drive to keep the place full. This creates a great interrogate on assistance personnel, often untrained. If your parent is very independent, it can be depressing. Your high functioning parent may be seated in the dining room, at dinner, with someone with incontinence issues. Or worse.
So before you sign that rental agreement, remember what I have shared with you : current and time to come residents are hunted permanently by full time marketing habitancy to keep the construction full. We had 140 residents, and two full time marketers: they were each required to make 50 phone call contacts each day to "prospects". Be comfortable but observant, when taking a marketing tour of a community: discover the care giving ratio; study the interaction of the residents with each other, and with group heads, peak into menagerial offices, talk with the maintenance director and the dietary director about the challenges of their positions. Call them later to ask about what they didn't say. Find out about the property's budget: anyway you can. Look at the food served; tour the kitchen, look in those walk-ins. Fresh, homemade preparations or commercial preparations? Sit down at lunch with a random group, and not of the marketer's choosing. all the time try to take an 'unplanned' tour, to get the most honest insight.
In conclusion, you may get more services, of a great quality, in smaller board and cares, than you will in large seclusion communities. seclusion communities do have a huge socialization advantage: a lot more prospective playmates for your parents. But they are not for everybody. Make sure to take an commerce savvy pro along with you while you are touring, and examining what you unquestionably Are getting for your rent.
Senior Living Communities - Where Does Mom's Rent Go?