Aperion Care Valparaiso

The terms “assisted living” and “nursing home” have different definitions, even though they are sometimes used interchangeably. An assisted living facility helps residents with their daily tasks, such as preparing meals, taking medications, and cleaning their spaces, but it does not provide ongoing medical care. The staff at an assisted living facility can take residents to their doctor’s appointments and provide help with common wellness issues, but they are not physicians and cannot provide the same level of care as a nursing home.

Nursing homes provide medical care around the clock, as well as help with everything from eating to bathing to dressing, depending on the patient’s needs. Nursing home patients are supervised by licensed physicians. Many patients move from assisted living to a nursing home after an injury or if a chronic condition gets too difficult to manage without daily care.

Caring for someone who has dementia or Alzheimer’s can be very challenging. While every situation is different, there are some key signs that a dementia patient should be moved into a facility with care available around the clock. Some of these signs include:

• Frequent wandering
• Difficulty moving around
• No caregiver available locally
• Family caregivers are stressed and unable to maintain a balanced life

Medicare does not cover the full cost of staying in a nursing home. Medicare does cover the first 100 days in any skilled nursing facility, but after that point you will need to rely on savings, long-term care insurance, Medicaid, or another solution to pay your nursing home expenses.

If you’re a senior who is receiving Social Security income, you can use it to help pay for your nursing home expenses. However, it’s important to note that Social Security usually isn’t enough to cover the cost of living in a nursing home. You’ll need to use another form of income, whether that’s long-term care insurance or savings you may have, to pay for Social Security in its entirety. It’s also important to note that if you are using Medicaid to pay for your nursing home costs, you may need to forfeit some or all of your Social Security income, depending on how much you receive.

Every state has state veterans’ homes, which are nursing homes that are subsidized by the state government and the VA. These homes are priced on a sliding scale depending on the veteran’s current income. The VA also offers stipends for long-term care costs. These stipends are often over $100 per day.