July 8, 2025 • 44 mins
Listen in as host Steve Kuker, President of Senior Care Consulting, discusses when to consider moving from home to a senior care community, then reviews the primary levels of care available at senior care communities, what they provide, and their average monthly cost. #SeniorCare #SeniorCareLive #SeniorCareConsulting #SeniorLiving #KansasCitySeniorCare #SeniorCarePlacement #SeniorCareAdvisor #Franchise #SeniorCareFranchise #Fiduciary(800) 331-6445
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Are you caring for an aging loved one? Are you
a senior searching for answers? Welcome to Senior Care Live,
a program dedicated to you, providing information, education and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And now America Senior Care Consultant.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Steve Keecker, Hello and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm
Steve Keeker. You're Senior Care Consultant, and I really appreciate
you tuning in today. And obviously this is Independence Day weekend,
and it is a happy two hundred and forty ninth
(00:40):
birthday to America, how about that? So hopefully everyone has
had a wonderful July fourth Independence Day. And then I
don't know about your neighborhood. My neighborhood's still blown up
all kinds of stuff all weekend long too much. Actually,
the dogs do not love that very much. But it's
(01:00):
all good. Everyone's having fun and they're being safe with it.
So hopefully you're having a wonderful weekend as well. All right,
So I've got a lot of information to cover today.
First of all, the most frequently asked question that I
have received since two thousand and two, so long, long time, Steve,
(01:23):
When should we consider moving from our home to a
senior care community. You know, we don't want to move
too soon. I mean, we love living in our home.
We don't want to leave it unless we need to,
so we want to go too soon. We definitely don't
want to wait until it's too late, Okay, because that's
problematic as well. So how do you know when you
(01:45):
should move? What's the right time? And I always say,
you know, sometimes it's pretty incredibly obvious, but I would
say way more often than not, it's not so obvious.
It's a little gray falls in the gray area. So
I like to say that the following things should trigger
the conversation of considering moving from your home to a
(02:06):
senior care community. Number One, when there is a safety issue,
when it's no longer safe to live at home, and
a lot of these things, I'll just and I'm going
to kind of kind of rifle through this fairly quickly
because I have a lot of just a lot of
information to cover today. But a lot of these things
(02:26):
are related to someone with some memory loss, some cognitive impairment. Okay,
So leaving the stovetop burners on. I can't even tell
you how many times I've heard that and obviously that's
a fire or you know fire risk or hazard. Now,
fortunately that's a super easy one to fix as well.
(02:46):
So you can flip unplug the range or the stove,
you can flip the breaker. If it's gas, you can
turn off the gas, and in MOOM you just disable
it to take care of that. But leaving the stovetop
burners on, I've heard all kinds of stories of near
misses on that one. So that's a major safety issue.
(03:06):
Many times wandering away and not able to find your
way back home. You could either walk away and end
up a mile or two away and you can't remember
how to get home, and God bless you. But if
you have dementia or Alzheimer's, one of the many forms
of Alzheimer's, it happens. It happens every day all around
(03:27):
the country, and not just one person, lots of people.
This is a major major issue. Another version of that
is you get in your car and you drive away.
I mean my own grandpa did that. They lived in Tapeka, Kansas,
and he ended up over in Lawrence, Kansas. It's probably
about twenty twenty five miles away. Couldn't remember quite remember
how to make his way back home. So and that's
(03:50):
what triggers all these silver alerts. If you see silver alerts,
that's it. Someone has walked away or driven away and
they're missing and they need to be found. Usually it
has a happy ending, but not always, and that's very,
very tragic in many of these situations. Malnutrition and dehydration,
(04:12):
that's a major major issue. I was visiting with a
son and his dad and he said, Dad, tell Steve
what you eat every day and he points to this
package of oreos. His dad ate an entire package of
oreos every single day. Didn't drink much water, and that's
what he ate. And I'm like, oh my goodness. And
(04:35):
sometimes they're not able to maybe cook for themselves, or
not able to get out and get groceries into the house.
They're not drinking a lot of water. And these CAUs
all sorts of health related issues, unsanitary living conditions due
to neglect or maybe just the inability to take care
of everything injured at home, frequent falls, frequent hospitalizations. One
(04:59):
that flies under the radar a lot is not taking
your medications on time, maybe not even at all. So
you're not taking your medications properly. That's a major safety issue.
It kind of flies under the radar. And then, of
course you know elder abuse, financial abuse, physical abuse, mental
and emotional abuse. All of those things fall into the category.
(05:21):
The number one reason you should consider moving from your
home to a senior care community when it is no
longer safe to live at home. Number two. I would
call this a close number two or maybe a one
a when the caregivers health and well being are in decline.
(05:43):
So there are a lot of people listening right now,
and I want to talk to you about this. If
you have an elderly parent caring for another elderly parent,
your radar needs to be on high alert here. Okay,
this is this is a huge, huge issue. We're talking
(06:04):
about your mental health, emotional health, spiritual health, physical health.
Of course, so as a caregiver, you tend to place
your own needs on the back burner. You love this
person so much that you're pouring yourself into being the
best caregiver that you can be, and then you're skipping
your own doctor's appointments, your own dentist appointments, you're skipping
(06:26):
social events. You're not getting together with the guys in
the donut shop on Friday morning or the Ladies book Club.
You're not going to church any longer, so you're not
getting your spiritual tank refilled. You're not going to book
club other gatherings. And let me tell you what stress
is a very destructive and powerful force. It will manifest
(06:48):
itself within you as a lot of health problems and
health issues. And then the other thing is, and I
won't go into gory detail, but I worked with the
gentleman and he said that, you know, as soon as
we find a place for my wife and I know
you can help me do the best job with that,
then I'm out of here. I'm like, oh, you're going
(07:09):
on vacation or are you going to kind of take
a break and catch your breath? He goes, no, Stevie,
he said, I'm out of here. And I'm like, whoa.
Oh that got my attention real fast and sent a
chill down my spine. I knew exactly what he meant.
And he said, hey, could you come over, you know,
(07:31):
maybe next week and visit with me? And I'm sir
about tomorrow morning? Oh, well, well yeah, I've that eight o'clock.
Does that work for you? Out? That works fine? Right?
And able to take care of his wife and find
a great place for her and then help him kind
of really kind of helped him through that because he
(07:53):
was beyond stressed out. And a lot of caregivers unfortunately,
unfortunately pass away way from the crushing stress. The stress
is just crushing them, and they pass away with health
issues and heart attacks and strokes and all kinds of things,
and it's just not necessary. It's unnecessary. You can avoid this, Okay.
(08:16):
So if you see your mother or your father, your grandparent,
or another elderly loved one being crushed by that stress,
you have to step in. It has to be an
intervention they have. You have to get them some help. Okay.
Number three, when the cost of in home care may
become too expensive, this just may be a financially driven decision.
(08:37):
I'm a huge, huge fan of home care, but the
bottom line is, and let me just back up in
my I got a little ahead of myself here. I'm
getting excited. But you could bring in some help, maybe
two or three days a week, so that the caregiver
(08:57):
can get away, catch their breadth, refill their tank, get
their hair done, go to their doctor's appointment, go to
the book club, go to the donuts with the guys,
and donuts and coffee on Friday morning and just to
get away. That is invaluable. But if you need a
home care company to come in provide professional home care assistance,
(09:21):
and if that rises to that twenty four hour level
of care, many times that's just not affordable. So it
could be a financially driven decision. Then, last, but not least,
when the care that you provide is not enough, why
not consider changing your role from the caregiver, that care provider,
that hands on care provider, to the care manager and
(09:43):
the care advocate, meaning, let's go out, let's find a
place that can provide good, solid, professional twenty four hour care,
and then your role can slowly shift from being that
caregiver to your tradition role of being the loving wife,
the loving husband, the loving child, the loving grandchild. And
(10:09):
you can advocate for them, you can speak for them,
you can make sure that they're receiving the great care
that they deserve. Those are the things, in my opinion,
that should trigger that conversation of considering moving from your
home to a senior care community. Now the Senior Care
Live question of the week. All assisted living communities provide
(10:33):
care for residents with cognitive impairment? Is that statement true
or false? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare live dot com.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
We'll have more with Steve coming up next.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
A recent Internet search for nursing homes in Kansas City
provided thirty two million results. It's daunting to think that
there are over three hundred and fifty senior care communities
to choose from in the Kansas City metro and on average,
you'll spend fifty to one hundred hours trying to find
a place for your loved one. If this sounds overwhelming,
that's because it is. I invite you to reach out
(11:24):
to Senior Care Consulting. We've been serving family since two
thousand and two. With our premium service, we do most
of the work for you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You'll spend just a.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Few hours of your time finding the best place available,
and you can trust us to be objective because we
don't receive reimbursement from any provider. We work for you.
To learn more, call Senior Care Consulting at nine three
nine four five twenty eight hundred nine nine four five
twenty eight hundred, a placement service with integrity at Seniorcare
(11:57):
Consulting dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For more information, go to Seniorcare
Live dot com. All right, back to the Senior Care
Live question of the week. All assisted living communities provide
care for residents with cognitive impairment? Does that stay true
(12:27):
or false? And the answer is true. The answer is true. However,
we need to put a big old asterisk or a
big old footnote on this thing. Not all assisted living
communities have a dedicated or separate memory care neighborhood. Okay,
(12:55):
so they all care for residents with at least some
mild cognitive impairment, maybe pleasantly confused, a little forgetful, and
they could be a lot further along than that. But
I'm not going to go into the whole memory care
thing today. But if we start having some behaviors, if
we become an elopement risk, if we're being overstimulated, all
(13:17):
these things that would qualify you for an immediate transfer
to the memory care unit of memory care neighborhood, that
separated part of the building that is dedicated to providing
care for a resident with cognitive impairment. Not all assistant
living communities have that, but they all do care for
(13:39):
residents with at least mild cognitive impairment. How about that?
All right? So we talked about some of the things
that the top four things that should trigger the conversation.
It's the most commonly asked question that I've had since
two thousand and two. When's the right time to move?
(13:59):
Those top four things that should trigger that conversation of
considering moving from your home to senior care community. So
I wanted to talk about some of the options out
in the market and they what some of these terms
mean and what they provide. And I'll also cover just
(14:20):
kind of some average monthly costs. Okay. So the first
stop in this continuum, if you will, is independent living.
Now there is no care provided, there's no hands on
care provided at the independent living level of care. Okay.
And so here's what this is all about. You're living
(14:43):
in your large house. All of your kids are grown
and moved out, and they live in their own houses,
they have their own families, all that stuff. And I
keep hearing over and over from a lot of my
senior care consulting clients. Well, Steve, we is about twenty
percent of our house. You know, I haven't been upstairs
in months, or I haven't been down to the basement
(15:04):
in a year. We just don't go down there. We
don't do the steps, and we use you know, we
use the bedroom and the living room area, in the kitchen.
You know, we live about you know, we'll lose about
eight hundred square feet of the house or whatever it is. Okay,
So if you're if the home ownership, the burden of
(15:24):
home ownership, and what I mean by burden is keeping
up with the repairs and keeping it updated, and replacing
the water heater, and mowing the grass and scooping the
snow and handling the roof that now has a leak,
and all the stuff you have to repaint the house
and one of the windows is leaking, you know, all
(15:46):
the joys of home ownership. Right, If that is just
becoming too much, it's just too much of a burden
then and a lot of folks will then choose a
lifestyle change. They want to downsize and they want to
shed that responsibility of home ownership, so they will move
(16:07):
to an independent living community. Most of the inventory I
would say, are apartments. You have a lot of apartments here.
Some places may have duplexes or four plexes. Some places
may even have freestanding villas. Okay, but I would say
that the majority of the inventory would would be a
(16:28):
ton of apartments, and most of these places they're they're
nice apartments. Okay, there is no care, all right, but
you're you're living in this apartment. You get to you
get to let your hair down and just kind of
take a breath and relax and maybe have some fun.
They provide at least one meal per day, sometimes a
couple of meals, maybe even all three, but usually at
(16:49):
least the main meal. You can maybe choose your lunch
or dinner, and some of them have you know, dining dollars,
so you know, you may go out to eat quite
a bit, or maybe you're out of town for a
few days and so you're not paying for something that
you're not using, so maybe use your meal credits when
you're there, or sometimes maybe you miss them. You know,
(17:09):
they have it every day and that's your choice whether
you want to go there or not. Your independent living
apartment is fully equipped in the kitchen. You can make
whatever you want whenever you want to, Okay, But the
point is you're not doing as much cooking and they'll
take the main meal off your hands. There are social opportunities,
(17:30):
so you're on your own, you're fully independent. You have
your own space, but you're not alone. You're around a
lot of other people, and so a lot of social opportunities.
And there's transportation that will run to the grocery store
once a week, maybe another couple of stores once a week.
You can sign up for that. And obviously you could
have your car there. Some of them have garages or
(17:52):
car ports. At least you would have a parking space
you can bring your car, of course, that's a common question.
And an independent living some of them will have what's
called an entrance fee, and that's really connected to a
continuing care retirement community. Maybe I'll get into more a
lot more in depth on one of the other shows
(18:15):
here coming up in the near future. But independent living
is you know, you have a monthly a monthly cost.
I would say it's it's primarily tied to the size
of the apartment and how nice the place is. But
you're looking at you know, four thousand dollars a month,
maybe forty five hundred dollars a month. It could go
up to you know, five thousand, fifty five hundred dollars
(18:38):
per month. Now a lot of people are saying, well,
wait a minute, my house is paid off and I'm
not paying very much. Well maybe so, okay, but go
back and add up all of the money that you spend.
And I think a lot of people don't realize how
much they're still spending. You could have two three hundred
dollars four hundred dollars a month just in homeowners insurance
(19:00):
every month, your personal property tax that could be several
hundred dollars per month, depending on the value of your
home and where you live. And then all the maintenance
and the upkeep and the utilities. You add that all up,
you're spending more than you probably realize. Okay. So and
we're also you're spending less money on groceries. You'll want
(19:24):
to have, you'll want to have like a renter's insurance
policy just on your contents. You don't have to ensure
the dwelling or the building, okay. And so that's independent living.
And if you're just moving into a freestanding independent living community,
usually there's not an entrance fee. But if you're moving
into a continuing care retirement community where you're starting off
(19:48):
at independent living and then moving to assist in long
term care, a lot of those do have entrance fees,
and they are six figures. They could be two hundred
thousand two. I looked at one place in Kansas City here. Recently,
the highest one used to be around seven hundred thousand.
Now I see one at nine hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
(20:09):
I'm like holy Cow in Kansas City. So I expect
to see that in some of the other larger cities
on the coast, but not in Kansas City. So, but
not all of them have entrance fees, and again you
do have that monthly fee. So coming up next, I'm
going to move through the continuum. I'm going to talk
at length about the assisted living level of care and
(20:32):
the long term care level of care, and then I'm
also going to sprinkle in a couple other levels of
care just to make it exciting. How about that. Don't
go away, I'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. Have a question. This is Seniorcare Live dot com.
Stick around We'll have more with Steve coming up next.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Hello, this is Steve Keeker, president of Senior Care Consulting.
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(21:23):
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(21:46):
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seven two two three seven two six or visit Senior
Care Consulting. Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live
(22:10):
on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For podcasts of the program,
go to seniorcare live dot com or wherever you get
your podcasts. All right, so we're talking about the various
levels of care. And the first stop is independent living.
That is not really a level of care. It's really
kind of your first stop in this continuum, if you will.
(22:31):
And again it's a lifestyle change. You're downsizing, you're letting
your hair down a little bit. You're moving into a
nice apartment that is large enough. Okay, it has all
the things that you need, fully equipped kitchen, they make
at least one meal for you per day, social opportunities,
transportation available, et cetera. And you just get to have
(22:53):
some fun and do your thing. Okay. The next stop
in the continuum. And I wish you could see my
graphic here. I do a lot of presentations, I mean
tons of them online in person, and I use I
have some really good slides and graphs. But the next
(23:13):
up is the assisted living level of care. And I
have a very wide lane in the center if you
can imagine a very wide lane in the center of
this graph of this continuum of care. Because assisted living
can be different things to different providers. Some of them
(23:33):
can provide very little care. Some of them provide so
much care they bend over backwards to keep you out
of having to move to long term care. So they
approach that long term care level and everything in between.
So it's a very wide lane. You could go out
to five or six or ten different assisted living communities
(23:57):
in here, five or six or ten different differnt stories
about what they do and what they offer, and they
would all be right. So how's that for confusing. That's
why clients have told me that the assisted living level
of care is probably, i would say, hands down the
second most difficult place to find because of these discrepancies
(24:22):
and this just this wide lane that the assisted living
level would occupy. So with our firm, with Senior Care Consulting,
we understand all of it. We speak assisted living so
you don't have to, and we determine what you need,
and then we research the market and then we identify
the top assisted living providers that can meet your needs,
(24:44):
and they and maybe on the lighter side, maybe on
the heavier side, or in the middle, but we take
care of all that stuff for you. That's one of
the reasons why our clients love us so much. But
in assisted living, you need to understand this is not
a medical model at all, okay, but there is a
lot of support. There's a lot of support. So the
(25:06):
assisted living level of care is primarily designed to help
you with what the industry calls ADLs, or activities of
daily living. So they can help you minimally or fully
with your bathing, dressing, grooming, and toileting. They can help
you with incontinence support to a point. They all are different.
(25:32):
Some of them you have to be able to manage
that completely on your own, some of them will provide
a lot of help with that, and again kind of
everything in between. All of them will manage and distribute
your medications, super super important. So what was one of
the safety issues on the first stop in the things
(25:53):
that should trigger that conversation of considering moving from home
to senior care community. One of the safety issues is
not taking your medications on time, not taking them properly,
maybe not taking them at all. That's not a problem
in assisted living. They'll fully manage it. They'll order the medications.
You'll never run out. If there's a change in medication,
(26:15):
they'll make that change and get the new meds in.
They will hand them to you on time and then
document that you took them okay, so you're not going
to miss your medications. At the assisted living level of care,
they make all of your meals for you at this point,
so you don't have to worry about that. Okay, they
make all of your meals, they provide all of your
(26:36):
snacks and hydration, all of those things are covered for you.
There's a full slate of of uh of activities and
and and a wide a wide variety of activities for
meaningful social engagement in quality of life. And it's just
it's just fantastic, a lot of a lot of fun
(26:57):
things to do. The doctors make house calls at the
assisted living level of care. Did you know that? So
you know, we complained so much about we wish things
would go back to how it used to be. Well,
that's one. That's one of them. Every assistant living that
I have ever visited, they'll have one or two, maybe more,
(27:20):
at least one, maybe usually a couple of physicians that
are willing to come to that community and see you
in your apartment. They're making a house call because that's
your home. That's super convenient. Well, Steve, what if I
want to keep my doctor, You can keep your doctor.
You don't have to move your care to one of
(27:42):
these doctors. It's super convenient to do that. Most people
do choose to do that, but you don't have to.
You can keep your own doctor, and then there's transportation
to take you out to see your own doctor or
to go to see a specialist. A lot of people
have a lot of specialists. So now you know I
have an E ANDT surgeon, and I have a brain surgeon.
(28:04):
I have a couple of specialists I never thought I
would ever have, but I do. Okay, you may have
a cardiologist or indochronologist, et cetera, et cetera. So you
can keep all of those doctors and they will take
you to and from So that is a lot of help.
That's a lot of support, tremendous amount of support. So
(28:25):
what does the assisted living level charge? So I would
say this really depends on two factors. Number one, the
size of your apartment. So a studio apartment is less
than a one bedroom apartment, and the one bedroom apartment
is less than a two bedroom apartment. So typically you're
(28:47):
going to have that base charge which is driven by
the size of the apartment, and then you're going to
have a level of care charge that would basically reflect
if you just need a little bit of help, they'll
add a little bit, say an extra five hundred dollars
a month on top of that base for your level
of care. If you need a tremendous amount of support,
(29:09):
they may be adding twenty five hundred dollars a month
or three thousand dollars a month on top of that base.
So the idea is, if you're using less resources, require
less care, you're spending less money than someone who is
who requires a lot of care, using a lot of resources,
and they're going to be paying more for that, if
that makes sense. Okay, So the average cost and I
(29:33):
think this would be applicable across the country. So I mean,
if you're in some smaller towns, it may be a
little bit less. If you're in some huge metropolitan areas,
maybe a little more. But I would say the average
cost range is going to be somewhere between six thousand
dollars a month to nine thousand dollars per month. I
could hear through the radio waves. I could hear a
(29:55):
few people gasp like, are you kidding me? No, that's
what this stuff costs. It's expensive. But is it worth it? Yeah? Yeah,
it's worth it if you if you can no longer
stay at home, if you've exhausted, you know, your family
and friend caregivers, you've hired home care providers to come
in to help out, but eventually that rate that increase
(30:18):
to that twenty four hour level you know, we're talking,
you know, twenty twenty five thousand dollars you could easily
spend per month doing that. We could spend six to
nine thousand dollars a month in assisted living. So at
some point that having home care in unless you can
afford it, And if you can afford it, it's fantastic,
But if you can't afford it, it just maybe make
more financial sense to move to assisted living to get
(30:40):
that kind of help. Six thousand and nine thousand dollars
per month. So if you compare and you look at
this in a relative way, okay, it's it's not nearly
as expensive. Now it's not the same either. When you're
at home with home care, that's one on one care.
When you're an assisted living it's definitely not one on
one care. One caregiver could be helping out you know,
(31:03):
several residents, okay, but unless you need you know, twenty
four hour care, one on one care, Okay, most folks
don't need that much care. And if you do, we
have some options for you. But most folks need some
help getting up, They need some help with their lunch,
they need some help with their medicine. They need help
(31:23):
doing their laundry, taking the shower, you know, two three
times a week. They need some help, you know, kind
of winding down and maybe getting dressed into their pajamas
and that sort of thing. They need their meals prepared
for them. That's not one on one, twenty four hour
care that could be had at the assisted living level
of care six thousand to nine thousand dollars per month.
(31:43):
And again, the two driving factors would be the size
of your apartment and then how much care you require.
And those are the two driving factors. Now, if your
head is spinning and you're like, wait a minute, I
I this sounds this sounds way more complex than I expected. Okay,
well it is. It is. By my firm, Senior Care Consulting.
(32:07):
We are built for this, Okay, we sir, We have
this niche service of helping our clients through this search
and selection process. We handle all of this for you.
And if you're interested in learning more about how we
can help you and your family, I would encourage you
to reach out for free consultation at nine one three,
(32:28):
nine four five twenty eight hundred or visit online at
Seniorcareconsulting dot com. I'll have more about the highest level
of care coming up.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Next, you're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior
Care Broadcasting Network. To contact Steve or a guest on
his show, this is Seniorcare Live dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
We'll have more coming up. So you've been living independent
at home, but now it's not working out. It's time
to begin searching for a senior care community. But with
hundreds of independent living, assisted living, long term care, and
(33:10):
memory care options, how are you supposed to determine the
best place for you? Hello? I'm Steve Keeker, and this
is exactly why I created my firm, Senior Care Consulting.
I help my own grandparents through this difficult process, so
I know how overwhelming this can be. Our business model
ensures credibility and objectivity. We work directly for you, and
(33:33):
we never receive reimbursement from any provider. We've helped hundreds
of family since two thousand and two, and we can
help you and your family as well. Call today for
a free Consultation at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred a placement service with integrity at Seniorcareconsulting dot com.
(34:07):
Welcome back. You listen to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit Seniorcare Live
dot com. Okay, So, talking about the three primary parts
of the continuum, independent living, I already talked about that,
assisted living, I just covered that. And then the highest
(34:30):
level of care, that last stop in the continuum is
referred to. I call it long term care. A lot
of people still refer to that as a nursing home. Now,
the industry they do not like that term because it
comes with a lot of baggage. So I would remind
the industry that that was baggage well earned. Okay, So
(34:53):
let's let's just kind of call it what it is,
well earned. I would also say that kind of the
dark days of you know, the quote unquote the nursing
home days with the cinder block walls and the smoking
inside and all this, all the stuff, right, they're gone.
They're just the vast, vast majority of places are nothing
(35:15):
close to that. They're so much more improved. There's so
much better, it's not even comparable. Okay. So that's why
the industry does not like that nursing home term. A
lot of people still say it. I'm not mad at you.
It could be the health center, it could be skilled nursing,
skilled nursing, and rehabits. I just call it long term care.
(35:36):
This is the medical model. This is where they have
the highest staffing. They have the most RNs and LPNs, okay,
and this is the medical model. So they they provide
every all of the support that the assisted living level does, Okay.
They help you with your all of your activities of
(35:57):
daily living, plus full medical care. Of just a few examples.
If you're diabetic management with insulin injections required, you're not
able to manage that, they can do that. They can
offer pain management, they can offer wound care because again
they have the RNs and the LPNs to do all
of this sort of thing. If you have a urinary catheter,
(36:18):
they can help manage that, okay. If you have a
feeding tube, they can help. They can help with that.
You know, you have to flush these catheters and in
a feeding tube. If you have three or four bowlus
feedings per day. You have to flush that with stair waters.
So and you have to make sure that the surgical
site where it is coming out of your stomach and
(36:39):
it's kind of sewed into place. Not to get too graphic,
but you that's that's an entry point. You have to
keep that area clean. You have to keep it from
getting infected. So there's there's a lot of medical need here, Okay.
They can also offer a lot heavier physical support and care.
So for example, and God bless them, but if someone
(37:02):
is weakened to the point where if it requires a
two person transfer meeting, it takes two staff to help
you move from point A to point B. Maybe it
may require mechanical lift, okay, or a sit to stand lift.
You may need to lay down on a little portable
(37:22):
table and roll into the shower and have your shower
given to you kind of in that laid down position.
So heavy, heavy physical care, all of these things can
be provided at that highest level of care, long term care. Okay.
So you have a couple of options. Number One, you
(37:43):
have a I call it a shared room. The industry
generally refers to it as a semi private room, and
that is so in our area here in the Kansas
City metro, and I think this is going to be
pretty close to you know, most areas. Now Again again,
if you're out in the country, maybe you're in a
(38:04):
smaller city, it could be a little bit less. If
you're in a major metropolitan area and this show is
heard by in both of those areas, okay, it could
be a little bit more. But your shared room, which
means you're gonna have you're gonna have a roommate in
your room, okay, in both sides of the room could
(38:27):
be divided by a curtain like kind of like a
hospital room, if you will. A lot of them are
divided by a wall. It could be a partial wall,
maybe even a full wall, and that's a lot more
privacy that way. I like those better. But yeah, both
of those available. So we're looking at anywhere from eight
(38:50):
eighty five hundred dollars to maybe ninety five hundred dollars
a month or so. Again, it could be a little
plus or minus. Now, a private room in long term
care comes at a major premium because frankly, it's not
at this point, it's not much about your personal space.
It's mostly about the care that you receive a private
(39:14):
room could be anywhere from around eleven thousand dollars per
month to around fifteen sixteen thousand dollars a month. So
it is super expensive. That's why I'm constantly preaching long
term care insurance. I don't think with these prices, and
they're going up every single day, it seems like I
(39:36):
don't think long term care insurance is an option anymore.
I think you got to have it. You got to
have it now, just for a little bit extra fun. Okay.
In this continuum, and this is in that wide lane
of that assisted living lane, you could have a residential
care level of care. So in RCF maybe an RCF
(39:57):
one r CF two that is jen I generally described
this as assisted living light. So the residents are a
little more independent, the staffing is less. You need you
need a little bit of help, and maybe not quite
as much. Okay, there we're looking at, you know, three
to four thousand dollars to maybe upwards of six thousand
(40:18):
dollars per month. And then on the higher side of
care again in that assisted living lane you have in Kansas,
we call this a home plus. Missouri just calls it
assisted living. It's just a smaller census number. A lot
of other states have different titles for it. But this
(40:39):
is care provided literally in a house. So someone has
taken and typically it's a ranch style house and you
could care for you know, maybe four to six residents
up up to you know, maybe about twelve residents max.
You're living literally in a house. Everyone has bedroom, you
(41:01):
might have a couple of shared rooms. You have bathrooms
all over the place. Everyone needs their meals home style
or family style in a large dining room area. You
have multiple living room areas. Usually there's a back deck
and a walking path in a fenced backyard. It's a
great fit for a lot of folks. We're talking about
(41:23):
eight thousand to ten thousand dollars per month on average
in a home plus type of a setting. So if
you've made the decision that you need to make that
transition from your home to a senior care community, these
are some of the things that you're going to run
into when you're out searching the market. If you need
(41:43):
help with that search, I would invite you to call
my firm, Senior Care Consulting. We'd like to visit with
you explain how we could help you through that in
just a few hours of your time, and again we
offer replacement service with integrity. We work directly for you.
We do not receive reimbursement from any senior care community,
and our clients love that. You could give us a
(42:06):
call at nine one three nine four five twenty eight
hundred or visit online at Seniorcareconsulting dot com. All right,
I'm Steve Keeker, and I wish you grace and peace.
May God bless you and your family on this day
and always join me next week right here on Senior
Care Live.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
Does your business serve the elderly and their caregivers in
our area? There are hundreds of thousands of people either
receiving or providing senior care and they need to know
about you. A unique and successful radio program called Senior
Care Live is the perfect opportunity to let your target
audience know about your amazing products and services. Senior Care
(43:08):
Live is currently adding a limited number of partner sponsors,
and if you're aligned with their mission, they want to
talk to you. They're interested in partnering with hospital organizations,
physician groups, home care providers, a state planning and older
law practices, financial advisors, insurance companies, real estate brokers, home
health agencies, and other providers serving the elderly and their caregivers.
(43:32):
Senior Care Live has a limited number of partner sponsor opportunities,
so call now at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred or visit seniorcare live dot com seniorcare live
dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Quid pro quo a Latin phrase that means an exchange
of goods or services where one transfer is contingent upon
the other. Here's an example. I'll recommend your senior care
community if you'll pay me a huge kickback from my referral.
The free referral services have a vested interest in you
choosing one of their business partners. That's how they make
(44:10):
their money. Does this paid recommendation sound objective or credible,
of course not. I'm Steve Keeker with Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so proud to say we have never received a
single penny from any provider ever. We offer a placement
service with integrity for help finding the right senior care community,
without conflict of interest, and without the quid pro quo
(44:34):
called nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred
nine one, three, nine four five twenty eight hundred replacement
service with integrity at Seniorcare Consulting dot com
Are you caring for an aging loved one? Are you
a senior searching for answers? Welcome to Senior Care Live,
a program dedicated to you, providing information, education and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And now America Senior Care Consultant.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Steve Keecker, Hello and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm
Steve Keeker. You're Senior Care Consultant, and I really appreciate
you tuning in today. And obviously this is Independence Day weekend,
and it is a happy two hundred and forty ninth
(00:40):
birthday to America, how about that? So hopefully everyone has
had a wonderful July fourth Independence Day. And then I
don't know about your neighborhood. My neighborhood's still blown up
all kinds of stuff all weekend long too much. Actually,
the dogs do not love that very much. But it's
(01:00):
all good. Everyone's having fun and they're being safe with it.
So hopefully you're having a wonderful weekend as well. All right,
So I've got a lot of information to cover today.
First of all, the most frequently asked question that I
have received since two thousand and two, so long, long time, Steve,
(01:23):
When should we consider moving from our home to a
senior care community. You know, we don't want to move
too soon. I mean, we love living in our home.
We don't want to leave it unless we need to,
so we want to go too soon. We definitely don't
want to wait until it's too late, Okay, because that's
problematic as well. So how do you know when you
(01:45):
should move? What's the right time? And I always say,
you know, sometimes it's pretty incredibly obvious, but I would
say way more often than not, it's not so obvious.
It's a little gray falls in the gray area. So
I like to say that the following things should trigger
the conversation of considering moving from your home to a
(02:06):
senior care community. Number One, when there is a safety issue,
when it's no longer safe to live at home, and
a lot of these things, I'll just and I'm going
to kind of kind of rifle through this fairly quickly
because I have a lot of just a lot of
information to cover today. But a lot of these things
(02:26):
are related to someone with some memory loss, some cognitive impairment. Okay,
So leaving the stovetop burners on. I can't even tell
you how many times I've heard that and obviously that's
a fire or you know fire risk or hazard. Now,
fortunately that's a super easy one to fix as well.
(02:46):
So you can flip unplug the range or the stove,
you can flip the breaker. If it's gas, you can
turn off the gas, and in MOOM you just disable
it to take care of that. But leaving the stovetop
burners on, I've heard all kinds of stories of near
misses on that one. So that's a major safety issue.
(03:06):
Many times wandering away and not able to find your
way back home. You could either walk away and end
up a mile or two away and you can't remember
how to get home, and God bless you. But if
you have dementia or Alzheimer's, one of the many forms
of Alzheimer's, it happens. It happens every day all around
(03:27):
the country, and not just one person, lots of people.
This is a major major issue. Another version of that
is you get in your car and you drive away.
I mean my own grandpa did that. They lived in Tapeka, Kansas,
and he ended up over in Lawrence, Kansas. It's probably
about twenty twenty five miles away. Couldn't remember quite remember
how to make his way back home. So and that's
(03:50):
what triggers all these silver alerts. If you see silver alerts,
that's it. Someone has walked away or driven away and
they're missing and they need to be found. Usually it
has a happy ending, but not always, and that's very,
very tragic in many of these situations. Malnutrition and dehydration,
(04:12):
that's a major major issue. I was visiting with a
son and his dad and he said, Dad, tell Steve
what you eat every day and he points to this
package of oreos. His dad ate an entire package of
oreos every single day. Didn't drink much water, and that's
what he ate. And I'm like, oh my goodness. And
(04:35):
sometimes they're not able to maybe cook for themselves, or
not able to get out and get groceries into the house.
They're not drinking a lot of water. And these CAUs
all sorts of health related issues, unsanitary living conditions due
to neglect or maybe just the inability to take care
of everything injured at home, frequent falls, frequent hospitalizations. One
(04:59):
that flies under the radar a lot is not taking
your medications on time, maybe not even at all. So
you're not taking your medications properly. That's a major safety issue.
It kind of flies under the radar. And then, of
course you know elder abuse, financial abuse, physical abuse, mental
and emotional abuse. All of those things fall into the category.
(05:21):
The number one reason you should consider moving from your
home to a senior care community when it is no
longer safe to live at home. Number two. I would
call this a close number two or maybe a one
a when the caregivers health and well being are in decline.
(05:43):
So there are a lot of people listening right now,
and I want to talk to you about this. If
you have an elderly parent caring for another elderly parent,
your radar needs to be on high alert here. Okay,
this is this is a huge, huge issue. We're talking
(06:04):
about your mental health, emotional health, spiritual health, physical health.
Of course, so as a caregiver, you tend to place
your own needs on the back burner. You love this
person so much that you're pouring yourself into being the
best caregiver that you can be, and then you're skipping
your own doctor's appointments, your own dentist appointments, you're skipping
(06:26):
social events. You're not getting together with the guys in
the donut shop on Friday morning or the Ladies book Club.
You're not going to church any longer, so you're not
getting your spiritual tank refilled. You're not going to book
club other gatherings. And let me tell you what stress
is a very destructive and powerful force. It will manifest
(06:48):
itself within you as a lot of health problems and
health issues. And then the other thing is, and I
won't go into gory detail, but I worked with the
gentleman and he said that, you know, as soon as
we find a place for my wife and I know
you can help me do the best job with that,
then I'm out of here. I'm like, oh, you're going
(07:09):
on vacation or are you going to kind of take
a break and catch your breath? He goes, no, Stevie,
he said, I'm out of here. And I'm like, whoa.
Oh that got my attention real fast and sent a
chill down my spine. I knew exactly what he meant.
And he said, hey, could you come over, you know,
(07:31):
maybe next week and visit with me? And I'm sir
about tomorrow morning? Oh, well, well yeah, I've that eight o'clock.
Does that work for you? Out? That works fine? Right?
And able to take care of his wife and find
a great place for her and then help him kind
of really kind of helped him through that because he
(07:53):
was beyond stressed out. And a lot of caregivers unfortunately,
unfortunately pass away way from the crushing stress. The stress
is just crushing them, and they pass away with health
issues and heart attacks and strokes and all kinds of things,
and it's just not necessary. It's unnecessary. You can avoid this, Okay.
(08:16):
So if you see your mother or your father, your grandparent,
or another elderly loved one being crushed by that stress,
you have to step in. It has to be an
intervention they have. You have to get them some help. Okay.
Number three, when the cost of in home care may
become too expensive, this just may be a financially driven decision.
(08:37):
I'm a huge, huge fan of home care, but the
bottom line is, and let me just back up in
my I got a little ahead of myself here. I'm
getting excited. But you could bring in some help, maybe
two or three days a week, so that the caregiver
(08:57):
can get away, catch their breadth, refill their tank, get
their hair done, go to their doctor's appointment, go to
the book club, go to the donuts with the guys,
and donuts and coffee on Friday morning and just to
get away. That is invaluable. But if you need a
home care company to come in provide professional home care assistance,
(09:21):
and if that rises to that twenty four hour level
of care, many times that's just not affordable. So it
could be a financially driven decision. Then, last, but not least,
when the care that you provide is not enough, why
not consider changing your role from the caregiver, that care provider,
that hands on care provider, to the care manager and
(09:43):
the care advocate, meaning, let's go out, let's find a
place that can provide good, solid, professional twenty four hour care,
and then your role can slowly shift from being that
caregiver to your tradition role of being the loving wife,
the loving husband, the loving child, the loving grandchild. And
(10:09):
you can advocate for them, you can speak for them,
you can make sure that they're receiving the great care
that they deserve. Those are the things, in my opinion,
that should trigger that conversation of considering moving from your
home to a senior care community. Now the Senior Care
Live question of the week. All assisted living communities provide
(10:33):
care for residents with cognitive impairment? Is that statement true
or false? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare live dot com.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
We'll have more with Steve coming up next.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
A recent Internet search for nursing homes in Kansas City
provided thirty two million results. It's daunting to think that
there are over three hundred and fifty senior care communities
to choose from in the Kansas City metro and on average,
you'll spend fifty to one hundred hours trying to find
a place for your loved one. If this sounds overwhelming,
that's because it is. I invite you to reach out
(11:24):
to Senior Care Consulting. We've been serving family since two
thousand and two. With our premium service, we do most
of the work for you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You'll spend just a.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Few hours of your time finding the best place available,
and you can trust us to be objective because we
don't receive reimbursement from any provider. We work for you.
To learn more, call Senior Care Consulting at nine three
nine four five twenty eight hundred nine nine four five
twenty eight hundred, a placement service with integrity at Seniorcare
(11:57):
Consulting dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For more information, go to Seniorcare
Live dot com. All right, back to the Senior Care
Live question of the week. All assisted living communities provide
care for residents with cognitive impairment? Does that stay true
(12:27):
or false? And the answer is true. The answer is true. However,
we need to put a big old asterisk or a
big old footnote on this thing. Not all assisted living
communities have a dedicated or separate memory care neighborhood. Okay,
(12:55):
so they all care for residents with at least some
mild cognitive impairment, maybe pleasantly confused, a little forgetful, and
they could be a lot further along than that. But
I'm not going to go into the whole memory care
thing today. But if we start having some behaviors, if
we become an elopement risk, if we're being overstimulated, all
(13:17):
these things that would qualify you for an immediate transfer
to the memory care unit of memory care neighborhood, that
separated part of the building that is dedicated to providing
care for a resident with cognitive impairment. Not all assistant
living communities have that, but they all do care for
(13:39):
residents with at least mild cognitive impairment. How about that?
All right? So we talked about some of the things
that the top four things that should trigger the conversation.
It's the most commonly asked question that I've had since
two thousand and two. When's the right time to move?
(13:59):
Those top four things that should trigger that conversation of
considering moving from your home to senior care community. So
I wanted to talk about some of the options out
in the market and they what some of these terms
mean and what they provide. And I'll also cover just
(14:20):
kind of some average monthly costs. Okay. So the first
stop in this continuum, if you will, is independent living.
Now there is no care provided, there's no hands on
care provided at the independent living level of care. Okay.
And so here's what this is all about. You're living
(14:43):
in your large house. All of your kids are grown
and moved out, and they live in their own houses,
they have their own families, all that stuff. And I
keep hearing over and over from a lot of my
senior care consulting clients. Well, Steve, we is about twenty
percent of our house. You know, I haven't been upstairs
in months, or I haven't been down to the basement
(15:04):
in a year. We just don't go down there. We
don't do the steps, and we use you know, we
use the bedroom and the living room area, in the kitchen.
You know, we live about you know, we'll lose about
eight hundred square feet of the house or whatever it is. Okay,
So if you're if the home ownership, the burden of
(15:24):
home ownership, and what I mean by burden is keeping
up with the repairs and keeping it updated, and replacing
the water heater, and mowing the grass and scooping the
snow and handling the roof that now has a leak,
and all the stuff you have to repaint the house
and one of the windows is leaking, you know, all
(15:46):
the joys of home ownership. Right, If that is just
becoming too much, it's just too much of a burden
then and a lot of folks will then choose a
lifestyle change. They want to downsize and they want to
shed that responsibility of home ownership, so they will move
(16:07):
to an independent living community. Most of the inventory I
would say, are apartments. You have a lot of apartments here.
Some places may have duplexes or four plexes. Some places
may even have freestanding villas. Okay, but I would say
that the majority of the inventory would would be a
(16:28):
ton of apartments, and most of these places they're they're
nice apartments. Okay, there is no care, all right, but
you're you're living in this apartment. You get to you
get to let your hair down and just kind of
take a breath and relax and maybe have some fun.
They provide at least one meal per day, sometimes a
couple of meals, maybe even all three, but usually at
(16:49):
least the main meal. You can maybe choose your lunch
or dinner, and some of them have you know, dining dollars,
so you know, you may go out to eat quite
a bit, or maybe you're out of town for a
few days and so you're not paying for something that
you're not using, so maybe use your meal credits when
you're there, or sometimes maybe you miss them. You know,
(17:09):
they have it every day and that's your choice whether
you want to go there or not. Your independent living
apartment is fully equipped in the kitchen. You can make
whatever you want whenever you want to, Okay, But the
point is you're not doing as much cooking and they'll
take the main meal off your hands. There are social opportunities,
(17:30):
so you're on your own, you're fully independent. You have
your own space, but you're not alone. You're around a
lot of other people, and so a lot of social opportunities.
And there's transportation that will run to the grocery store
once a week, maybe another couple of stores once a week.
You can sign up for that. And obviously you could
have your car there. Some of them have garages or
(17:52):
car ports. At least you would have a parking space
you can bring your car, of course, that's a common question.
And an independent living some of them will have what's
called an entrance fee, and that's really connected to a
continuing care retirement community. Maybe I'll get into more a
lot more in depth on one of the other shows
(18:15):
here coming up in the near future. But independent living
is you know, you have a monthly a monthly cost.
I would say it's it's primarily tied to the size
of the apartment and how nice the place is. But
you're looking at you know, four thousand dollars a month,
maybe forty five hundred dollars a month. It could go
up to you know, five thousand, fifty five hundred dollars
(18:38):
per month. Now a lot of people are saying, well,
wait a minute, my house is paid off and I'm
not paying very much. Well maybe so, okay, but go
back and add up all of the money that you spend.
And I think a lot of people don't realize how
much they're still spending. You could have two three hundred
dollars four hundred dollars a month just in homeowners insurance
(19:00):
every month, your personal property tax that could be several
hundred dollars per month, depending on the value of your
home and where you live. And then all the maintenance
and the upkeep and the utilities. You add that all up,
you're spending more than you probably realize. Okay. So and
we're also you're spending less money on groceries. You'll want
(19:24):
to have, you'll want to have like a renter's insurance
policy just on your contents. You don't have to ensure
the dwelling or the building, okay. And so that's independent living.
And if you're just moving into a freestanding independent living community,
usually there's not an entrance fee. But if you're moving
into a continuing care retirement community where you're starting off
(19:48):
at independent living and then moving to assist in long
term care, a lot of those do have entrance fees,
and they are six figures. They could be two hundred
thousand two. I looked at one place in Kansas City here. Recently,
the highest one used to be around seven hundred thousand.
Now I see one at nine hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
(20:09):
I'm like holy Cow in Kansas City. So I expect
to see that in some of the other larger cities
on the coast, but not in Kansas City. So, but
not all of them have entrance fees, and again you
do have that monthly fee. So coming up next, I'm
going to move through the continuum. I'm going to talk
at length about the assisted living level of care and
(20:32):
the long term care level of care, and then I'm
also going to sprinkle in a couple other levels of
care just to make it exciting. How about that. Don't
go away, I'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. Have a question. This is Seniorcare Live dot com.
Stick around We'll have more with Steve coming up next.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Hello, this is Steve Keeker, president of Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so excited to announce that we are expanding nationwide
by awarding Senior Care Consulting franchises. We help our clients
find the right senior care community, including assistant living, memory care,
long term care, and continuing care retirement communities. We are
(21:23):
not another run of the mill, free referral service. We're
very different. We offer replacement service with integrity. Owning a
senior care consulting franchise offers many benefits. Our market is
not affected by the economy. Operate from your home office
and enjoy work life balance. Pour your passion into a
business you can be proud of. For more information about
(21:46):
owning a senior care consulting franchise, call eight three three
seven two two three seven two six eight three three
seven two two three seven two six or visit Senior
Care Consulting. Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live
(22:10):
on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For podcasts of the program,
go to seniorcare live dot com or wherever you get
your podcasts. All right, so we're talking about the various
levels of care. And the first stop is independent living.
That is not really a level of care. It's really
kind of your first stop in this continuum, if you will.
(22:31):
And again it's a lifestyle change. You're downsizing, you're letting
your hair down a little bit. You're moving into a
nice apartment that is large enough. Okay, it has all
the things that you need, fully equipped kitchen, they make
at least one meal for you per day, social opportunities,
transportation available, et cetera. And you just get to have
(22:53):
some fun and do your thing. Okay. The next stop
in the continuum. And I wish you could see my
graphic here. I do a lot of presentations, I mean
tons of them online in person, and I use I
have some really good slides and graphs. But the next
(23:13):
up is the assisted living level of care. And I
have a very wide lane in the center if you
can imagine a very wide lane in the center of
this graph of this continuum of care. Because assisted living
can be different things to different providers. Some of them
(23:33):
can provide very little care. Some of them provide so
much care they bend over backwards to keep you out
of having to move to long term care. So they
approach that long term care level and everything in between.
So it's a very wide lane. You could go out
to five or six or ten different assisted living communities
(23:57):
in here, five or six or ten different differnt stories
about what they do and what they offer, and they
would all be right. So how's that for confusing. That's
why clients have told me that the assisted living level
of care is probably, i would say, hands down the
second most difficult place to find because of these discrepancies
(24:22):
and this just this wide lane that the assisted living
level would occupy. So with our firm, with Senior Care Consulting,
we understand all of it. We speak assisted living so
you don't have to, and we determine what you need,
and then we research the market and then we identify
the top assisted living providers that can meet your needs,
(24:44):
and they and maybe on the lighter side, maybe on
the heavier side, or in the middle, but we take
care of all that stuff for you. That's one of
the reasons why our clients love us so much. But
in assisted living, you need to understand this is not
a medical model at all, okay, but there is a
lot of support. There's a lot of support. So the
(25:06):
assisted living level of care is primarily designed to help
you with what the industry calls ADLs, or activities of
daily living. So they can help you minimally or fully
with your bathing, dressing, grooming, and toileting. They can help
you with incontinence support to a point. They all are different.
(25:32):
Some of them you have to be able to manage
that completely on your own, some of them will provide
a lot of help with that, and again kind of
everything in between. All of them will manage and distribute
your medications, super super important. So what was one of
the safety issues on the first stop in the things
(25:53):
that should trigger that conversation of considering moving from home
to senior care community. One of the safety issues is
not taking your medications on time, not taking them properly,
maybe not taking them at all. That's not a problem
in assisted living. They'll fully manage it. They'll order the medications.
You'll never run out. If there's a change in medication,
(26:15):
they'll make that change and get the new meds in.
They will hand them to you on time and then
document that you took them okay, so you're not going
to miss your medications. At the assisted living level of care,
they make all of your meals for you at this point,
so you don't have to worry about that. Okay, they
make all of your meals, they provide all of your
(26:36):
snacks and hydration, all of those things are covered for you.
There's a full slate of of uh of activities and
and and a wide a wide variety of activities for
meaningful social engagement in quality of life. And it's just
it's just fantastic, a lot of a lot of fun
(26:57):
things to do. The doctors make house calls at the
assisted living level of care. Did you know that? So
you know, we complained so much about we wish things
would go back to how it used to be. Well,
that's one. That's one of them. Every assistant living that
I have ever visited, they'll have one or two, maybe more,
(27:20):
at least one, maybe usually a couple of physicians that
are willing to come to that community and see you
in your apartment. They're making a house call because that's
your home. That's super convenient. Well, Steve, what if I
want to keep my doctor, You can keep your doctor.
You don't have to move your care to one of
(27:42):
these doctors. It's super convenient to do that. Most people
do choose to do that, but you don't have to.
You can keep your own doctor, and then there's transportation
to take you out to see your own doctor or
to go to see a specialist. A lot of people
have a lot of specialists. So now you know I
have an E ANDT surgeon, and I have a brain surgeon.
(28:04):
I have a couple of specialists I never thought I
would ever have, but I do. Okay, you may have
a cardiologist or indochronologist, et cetera, et cetera. So you
can keep all of those doctors and they will take
you to and from So that is a lot of help.
That's a lot of support, tremendous amount of support. So
(28:25):
what does the assisted living level charge? So I would
say this really depends on two factors. Number one, the
size of your apartment. So a studio apartment is less
than a one bedroom apartment, and the one bedroom apartment
is less than a two bedroom apartment. So typically you're
(28:47):
going to have that base charge which is driven by
the size of the apartment, and then you're going to
have a level of care charge that would basically reflect
if you just need a little bit of help, they'll
add a little bit, say an extra five hundred dollars
a month on top of that base for your level
of care. If you need a tremendous amount of support,
(29:09):
they may be adding twenty five hundred dollars a month
or three thousand dollars a month on top of that base.
So the idea is, if you're using less resources, require
less care, you're spending less money than someone who is
who requires a lot of care, using a lot of resources,
and they're going to be paying more for that, if
that makes sense. Okay, So the average cost and I
(29:33):
think this would be applicable across the country. So I mean,
if you're in some smaller towns, it may be a
little bit less. If you're in some huge metropolitan areas,
maybe a little more. But I would say the average
cost range is going to be somewhere between six thousand
dollars a month to nine thousand dollars per month. I
could hear through the radio waves. I could hear a
(29:55):
few people gasp like, are you kidding me? No, that's
what this stuff costs. It's expensive. But is it worth it? Yeah? Yeah,
it's worth it if you if you can no longer
stay at home, if you've exhausted, you know, your family
and friend caregivers, you've hired home care providers to come
in to help out, but eventually that rate that increase
(30:18):
to that twenty four hour level you know, we're talking,
you know, twenty twenty five thousand dollars you could easily
spend per month doing that. We could spend six to
nine thousand dollars a month in assisted living. So at
some point that having home care in unless you can
afford it, And if you can afford it, it's fantastic,
But if you can't afford it, it just maybe make
more financial sense to move to assisted living to get
(30:40):
that kind of help. Six thousand and nine thousand dollars
per month. So if you compare and you look at
this in a relative way, okay, it's it's not nearly
as expensive. Now it's not the same either. When you're
at home with home care, that's one on one care.
When you're an assisted living it's definitely not one on
one care. One caregiver could be helping out you know,
(31:03):
several residents, okay, but unless you need you know, twenty
four hour care, one on one care, Okay, most folks
don't need that much care. And if you do, we
have some options for you. But most folks need some
help getting up, They need some help with their lunch,
they need some help with their medicine. They need help
(31:23):
doing their laundry, taking the shower, you know, two three
times a week. They need some help, you know, kind
of winding down and maybe getting dressed into their pajamas
and that sort of thing. They need their meals prepared
for them. That's not one on one, twenty four hour
care that could be had at the assisted living level
of care six thousand to nine thousand dollars per month.
(31:43):
And again, the two driving factors would be the size
of your apartment and then how much care you require.
And those are the two driving factors. Now, if your
head is spinning and you're like, wait a minute, I
I this sounds this sounds way more complex than I expected. Okay,
well it is. It is. By my firm, Senior Care Consulting.
(32:07):
We are built for this, Okay, we sir, We have
this niche service of helping our clients through this search
and selection process. We handle all of this for you.
And if you're interested in learning more about how we
can help you and your family, I would encourage you
to reach out for free consultation at nine one three,
(32:28):
nine four five twenty eight hundred or visit online at
Seniorcareconsulting dot com. I'll have more about the highest level
of care coming up.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Next, you're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior
Care Broadcasting Network. To contact Steve or a guest on
his show, this is Seniorcare Live dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
We'll have more coming up. So you've been living independent
at home, but now it's not working out. It's time
to begin searching for a senior care community. But with
hundreds of independent living, assisted living, long term care, and
(33:10):
memory care options, how are you supposed to determine the
best place for you? Hello? I'm Steve Keeker, and this
is exactly why I created my firm, Senior Care Consulting.
I help my own grandparents through this difficult process, so
I know how overwhelming this can be. Our business model
ensures credibility and objectivity. We work directly for you, and
(33:33):
we never receive reimbursement from any provider. We've helped hundreds
of family since two thousand and two, and we can
help you and your family as well. Call today for
a free Consultation at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred a placement service with integrity at Seniorcareconsulting dot com.
(34:07):
Welcome back. You listen to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit Seniorcare Live
dot com. Okay, So, talking about the three primary parts
of the continuum, independent living, I already talked about that,
assisted living, I just covered that. And then the highest
(34:30):
level of care, that last stop in the continuum is
referred to. I call it long term care. A lot
of people still refer to that as a nursing home. Now,
the industry they do not like that term because it
comes with a lot of baggage. So I would remind
the industry that that was baggage well earned. Okay, So
(34:53):
let's let's just kind of call it what it is,
well earned. I would also say that kind of the
dark days of you know, the quote unquote the nursing
home days with the cinder block walls and the smoking
inside and all this, all the stuff, right, they're gone.
They're just the vast, vast majority of places are nothing
(35:15):
close to that. They're so much more improved. There's so
much better, it's not even comparable. Okay. So that's why
the industry does not like that nursing home term. A
lot of people still say it. I'm not mad at you.
It could be the health center, it could be skilled nursing,
skilled nursing, and rehabits. I just call it long term care.
(35:36):
This is the medical model. This is where they have
the highest staffing. They have the most RNs and LPNs, okay,
and this is the medical model. So they they provide
every all of the support that the assisted living level does, Okay.
They help you with your all of your activities of
(35:57):
daily living, plus full medical care. Of just a few examples.
If you're diabetic management with insulin injections required, you're not
able to manage that, they can do that. They can
offer pain management, they can offer wound care because again
they have the RNs and the LPNs to do all
of this sort of thing. If you have a urinary catheter,
(36:18):
they can help manage that, okay. If you have a
feeding tube, they can help. They can help with that.
You know, you have to flush these catheters and in
a feeding tube. If you have three or four bowlus
feedings per day. You have to flush that with stair waters.
So and you have to make sure that the surgical
site where it is coming out of your stomach and
(36:39):
it's kind of sewed into place. Not to get too graphic,
but you that's that's an entry point. You have to
keep that area clean. You have to keep it from
getting infected. So there's there's a lot of medical need here, Okay.
They can also offer a lot heavier physical support and care.
So for example, and God bless them, but if someone
(37:02):
is weakened to the point where if it requires a
two person transfer meeting, it takes two staff to help
you move from point A to point B. Maybe it
may require mechanical lift, okay, or a sit to stand lift.
You may need to lay down on a little portable
(37:22):
table and roll into the shower and have your shower
given to you kind of in that laid down position.
So heavy, heavy physical care, all of these things can
be provided at that highest level of care, long term care. Okay.
So you have a couple of options. Number One, you
(37:43):
have a I call it a shared room. The industry
generally refers to it as a semi private room, and
that is so in our area here in the Kansas
City metro, and I think this is going to be
pretty close to you know, most areas. Now Again again,
if you're out in the country, maybe you're in a
(38:04):
smaller city, it could be a little bit less. If
you're in a major metropolitan area and this show is
heard by in both of those areas, okay, it could
be a little bit more. But your shared room, which
means you're gonna have you're gonna have a roommate in
your room, okay, in both sides of the room could
(38:27):
be divided by a curtain like kind of like a
hospital room, if you will. A lot of them are
divided by a wall. It could be a partial wall,
maybe even a full wall, and that's a lot more
privacy that way. I like those better. But yeah, both
of those available. So we're looking at anywhere from eight
(38:50):
eighty five hundred dollars to maybe ninety five hundred dollars
a month or so. Again, it could be a little
plus or minus. Now, a private room in long term
care comes at a major premium because frankly, it's not
at this point, it's not much about your personal space.
It's mostly about the care that you receive a private
(39:14):
room could be anywhere from around eleven thousand dollars per
month to around fifteen sixteen thousand dollars a month. So
it is super expensive. That's why I'm constantly preaching long
term care insurance. I don't think with these prices, and
they're going up every single day, it seems like I
(39:36):
don't think long term care insurance is an option anymore.
I think you got to have it. You got to
have it now, just for a little bit extra fun. Okay.
In this continuum, and this is in that wide lane
of that assisted living lane, you could have a residential
care level of care. So in RCF maybe an RCF
(39:57):
one r CF two that is jen I generally described
this as assisted living light. So the residents are a
little more independent, the staffing is less. You need you
need a little bit of help, and maybe not quite
as much. Okay, there we're looking at, you know, three
to four thousand dollars to maybe upwards of six thousand
(40:18):
dollars per month. And then on the higher side of
care again in that assisted living lane you have in Kansas,
we call this a home plus. Missouri just calls it
assisted living. It's just a smaller census number. A lot
of other states have different titles for it. But this
(40:39):
is care provided literally in a house. So someone has
taken and typically it's a ranch style house and you
could care for you know, maybe four to six residents
up up to you know, maybe about twelve residents max.
You're living literally in a house. Everyone has bedroom, you
(41:01):
might have a couple of shared rooms. You have bathrooms
all over the place. Everyone needs their meals home style
or family style in a large dining room area. You
have multiple living room areas. Usually there's a back deck
and a walking path in a fenced backyard. It's a
great fit for a lot of folks. We're talking about
(41:23):
eight thousand to ten thousand dollars per month on average
in a home plus type of a setting. So if
you've made the decision that you need to make that
transition from your home to a senior care community, these
are some of the things that you're going to run
into when you're out searching the market. If you need
(41:43):
help with that search, I would invite you to call
my firm, Senior Care Consulting. We'd like to visit with
you explain how we could help you through that in
just a few hours of your time, and again we
offer replacement service with integrity. We work directly for you.
We do not receive reimbursement from any senior care community,
and our clients love that. You could give us a
(42:06):
call at nine one three nine four five twenty eight
hundred or visit online at Seniorcareconsulting dot com. All right,
I'm Steve Keeker, and I wish you grace and peace.
May God bless you and your family on this day
and always join me next week right here on Senior
Care Live.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
Does your business serve the elderly and their caregivers in
our area? There are hundreds of thousands of people either
receiving or providing senior care and they need to know
about you. A unique and successful radio program called Senior
Care Live is the perfect opportunity to let your target
audience know about your amazing products and services. Senior Care
(43:08):
Live is currently adding a limited number of partner sponsors,
and if you're aligned with their mission, they want to
talk to you. They're interested in partnering with hospital organizations,
physician groups, home care providers, a state planning and older
law practices, financial advisors, insurance companies, real estate brokers, home
health agencies, and other providers serving the elderly and their caregivers.
(43:32):
Senior Care Live has a limited number of partner sponsor opportunities,
so call now at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred or visit seniorcare live dot com seniorcare live
dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Quid pro quo a Latin phrase that means an exchange
of goods or services where one transfer is contingent upon
the other. Here's an example. I'll recommend your senior care
community if you'll pay me a huge kickback from my referral.
The free referral services have a vested interest in you
choosing one of their business partners. That's how they make
(44:10):
their money. Does this paid recommendation sound objective or credible,
of course not. I'm Steve Keeker with Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so proud to say we have never received a
single penny from any provider ever. We offer a placement
service with integrity for help finding the right senior care community,
without conflict of interest, and without the quid pro quo
(44:34):
called nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred
nine one, three, nine four five twenty eight hundred replacement
service with integrity at Seniorcare Consulting dot com
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