What to Look for and Ask During an Assisted Living Community Visit
When it comes to finding an assisted living community that’s a good fit for your senior loved one, a personal visit is one of the most important steps. It provides older adults and their families with an opportunity to assess whether or not the community meets their needs and feels like a place they could call home.
To help you make the most of your visit, we created a checklist of questions to ask and things to look for on your tour of an assisted living community.
What to Look for When You Tour
Here are a few things to keep an eye on when you make your way through an assisted living community for the first time:
- As you drive up to the community, do the grounds and exterior of the building look tidy and well-kept?
- Is there ample parking for visitors and good exterior lighting?
- Are the exterior doors locked, or is there a receptionist/team member stationed in the lobby to intercept outsiders before they enter resident areas?
- Are the lobby and other common areas in good repair? Do they look and smell clean?
- Do residents look tidy and well-cared for?
- Are interactions between staff members and residents positive? Do team members greet residents and family members by name?
- Are residents engaged in life enrichment activities that promote healthy aging?
- As you pass team members, do they look you in the eye and offer a greeting or smile?
- Is there a posted calendar of events for residents? (If your tour takes place during a time when an activity is scheduled, ask to see the program in progress.)
- Are safety features in place throughout the building, such as handrails in the hallways, sprinklers in the ceilings, grab bars in the bathrooms, and an emergency call system?
Questions to Ask During Your Visit
While you’ll no doubt have your own list of questions to ask, here are a few you won’t want to miss:
- On average, how long have caregivers been employed with the community? What about other team members?
- What is the caregiver-to-resident ratio?
- Is there a nurse on-site 24/7?
- Is there a manager on duty 7 days a week?
- How is a medical emergency handled?
- Does the community perform background checks on caregivers before they are hired? How often are those repeated once a caregiver is employed?
- What type of training does each employee receive upon hire?
- Do employees receive additional training each year?
- What does the monthly fee include?
- What additional charges might you expect to see?
- Are there any entrance or application fees?
- What are the terms of the contract?
- Are residents assigned mealtimes, or are they free to eat whenever they’d like?
- Do residents have a choice of menu options at mealtime?
- Can the community accommodate special dietary needs?
- How does the transportation program work? Is there a driver available to take residents to and from doctor’s appointments?
- Is the community pet-friendly? If so, what is the pet policy?
- What happens if your senior loved one needs more care? Can they remain in their current location or move to another area of the community?
- Under what conditions would your aging loved one be required to leave the community?
- Do you employ chefs and what are the mealtime options?
- Does your chef offer daily specials?
- Do you offer outpatient therapy?
- Are you a licensed community with the Indiana State Department of Health?
- How did you perform on your last state survey?
We encourage you to print this checklist and take it along on your visits. While you might think you will be able to remember everything, if you tour more than one assisted living community, you may find it difficult to remember the details about each one.