For some people, in-home services may not be enough. There are several facility options to consider:
Making the decision to leave your home can be difficult so its important to take time to explore your options. It’s important to think about your needs, preferences, and goals.
What is acute care (short term care)?
These medical services are through a hospital or urgent care to respond to life-threatening emergencies, worsening of chronic illnesses, and other health related problems that require quick action from medical professionals.
What is assisted living?
An assisted living facility may be a good choice if you need more personal care services than you can get at home, but you don’t need the round-the-clock medical care and supervision of professional medical staff. Assisted living can help with some of the activities of daily living—things like cooking meals, getting to the bathroom in the middle of the night, keeping house, and traveling to appointments.
Individual Residential Care
- Assisted Living – these can be large or small facilities that provide housing and services to people in need. Residents may need help with dressing, bathing, eating and toileting, but do not require 24 hours of nursing care.
- Group Homes – these are often smaller residential facilities that provide housing and services to people in need. Group homes provide both housing and services to people in need and may have limited nursing care available also.
- Medical Foster Home (MFH) – A Medical Foster Home (MFH) is not a group home; it is a private home with a family, rather than an institutional setting for Veterans. Veterans receive high quality care since there are only 2 residents in a home. The VA Home Based Primary Care Team will provide care to the veteran in the MFH, instead of the veteran having to travel to the VA for primary care appointments.
Residential Facilities
- Rehabilitation Facilities– provide specialized medical care and/or rehabilitation services to injured, sick, or disabled patients and is usually short-term. Typically people are referred by a hospital for follow up care after a stay in the hospital for a surgery, accident, or illness as examples. The goal of a rehabilitation facility is to prepare a patient to get back to their highest level of independence.
- Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF)– offers 24-hour nursing care for those with complex medical needs who can no longer live independently and need constant medical care.
- Memory Care- caters specifically to individuals who live with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other types of memory problems. Memory care units generally have 24-hour supervised care within a standalone wing or on another floor of an assisted living facility or hospital.
Behavioral health facilities
The three primary types of treatment settings for receiving mental health care or services are 1) hospital in-patient, 2) residential and 3) outpatient.
- Hospital In-patient: Involve an overnight or less than 30 days stay in a psychiatric hospital or psychiatric unit of a general hospital. A person admitted to an inpatient setting might be in a serous phase of a mental illness and need help around the clock.
- Residential: generally, provide longer-term care for individuals with chronic psychiatric disorder, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. They also treat addictions and may provide detoxification services or who have a dual diagnosis (i.e., a mental disorder and substance abuse problems).
- Out-Patient: involve office visits with no overnight stay. Some are based in community mental health centers or private offices that offer solo or group support; others are located in general hospitals where individuals visit an outpatient clinic for an appointment.
Is assisted living right for you?
If you are trying to decide whether assisted living is right for you, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you need more help than family and friends are able to provide? Are the activities of daily living becoming stressful or overwhelming? If family or in-home help is not enough, assisted living is an option.
- Do you feel lonely or isolated at home? Having an active social life is vital to your health and happiness. Being alone much of the time is a recipe for depression in older adults. The social aspect of assisted living can be a huge benefit. Assisted living homes offer a range of social and recreational activities. And the community environment also gives the opportunity to make new friends.
- Do you worry for your safety? Perhaps your mobility is limited, making it difficult to get out of bed by yourself, for example. Maybe you’re afraid of what might happen if you fell and couldn’t get up or experience another problem and couldn’t get help.
- Is maintaining your home too hard? There are a lot of responsibilities that come with living in your own home. Assisted living facilities can provide a home-like atmosphere, without the work of cooking, cleaning, shopping for groceries, and doing laundry.
- Is transportation an issue? Perhaps you’re having trouble driving or can no longer drive. If public transportation or another alternative isn’t easy and convenient, you may be increasingly housebound. Assisted living facilities offer transportation, so you can get where you need to go without having to rely on friends and family.
As you start your search, try not to get overwhelmed by all the options. Remember, you are not alone you have a friendly Resource Navigator that can help you explore your options.
To search for LICENSED facilities in Nevada, visit the Bureau of Healthcare Quality & Compliance Facility Locator .
