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Residential Care Homes
Residential care homes are also called adult family homes, group homes, personal care homes or board and care homes, depending on your local facility. They all render the same menu of services - personal care for seniors in a home setting.
Seniors love the home ambience of such facilities, particularly because they dislike living in large facilities, but need the help of professional staff of a residential care home. The staff here is trained to offer help with seniors’ daily activities and
monitor their physical, mental and emotional condition. Since residential care homes are small, staff or caregivers also render other services such as memory care, help with special diets and diabetes care.
Residential Care in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, caters to a wide number of seniors and offers a large number of generalized and personalized services. These services not only include nursing care and non-medical supervision but also
Residential Care Facilities (RCFE).
Services offered:
Basic care and allied services such as three home-cooked meals a day, using fresh ingredients, snacks, fruits and special diets, help with administering medication,
eating, toileting, bathing, dressing, feeding, grooming, walking and other activities of daily life. If seniors fall ill or are recovering from accidents or surgery, specialized care is provided. Residential care homes also provide 24x7 focused and
personalized care from caregivers, some of whom are trained nurses. They supervise the residents very closely and monitor their progress.
The facility also keeps in constant touch with the senior’s doctors, family and others related to his welfare, and the resident also receives counseling and mental health care, when necessary. The senior can depend on the residential care home
to order his medicines, store them safely and administer over-the-counter medication according to the doctor’s instructions. Seniors here can also go on and participate in planned recreational activities, and participate in health and exercise programs.
Beauty salon or hairdresser’s services may also be offered.
Residential care homes also encourage residents to play games, do some baking
and cooking. Other services include cable TV and wheelchair
access and private phones on request.
Some residential care homes offer medical care for seniors suffering from:
Alzheimer's disease, dementia and Parkinson’s disease
Heart problems and heart failure
Diabetes
Strokes
Muscular disabilities
Frailness and weakness
Inability to stand or walk without help
Charges:
Fees for seniors living at residential care homes vary according to their
choice of rooms, their physical and mental condition and need for specialized
and personalized medical and/or nursing care. Fees are charged monthly and
include meals, housekeeping, utilities, laundry services, social activities.
How to choose a residential care home: When choosing a residential care home for your parent, driving by a home is not enough and liking the exteriors isn’t enough. You have to go in and check out each one with care and a degree of thoroughness.
The façade and ambience of a home may be warm and inviting, but there are other issues too, such as:
Check if the staff is approachable and professional in its attitude to work
Ask for staff’s references
The ratio of staff to residents
Whether there is a resident nurse available 24 hours a day
The level of personal care is also important.
Apart from the above, you might like to ask a few more questions, such as:
Can residents keep pets?
Are residents allowed to smoke?
What is the level of security that the home has?
Does it use security alarms?
Secure Memory Care Residential Homes
When you watch your parent struggling to remember something or just observe that his memory has begun to fade, it can be devastating for everyone.
This is the right time for you to give him some secure memory care. Memory care refers to a long-term caring solution for those aged people who have been diagnosed with Dementia or Alzheimer’s, or those who suffer with problems with a
minimum of two tasks of daily life. Memory care residential homes are specialized facilities that offer professional services and are designed to house those with varying degrees of memory impairment.
Such facilities are ideal for those whose degree of mental impairment makes it difficult for a senior to live by himself. However, he may still not need intensive care offered by professional nursing. Despite this, good memory care residential homes
offer trained and professional nursing staff and caregivers with a low caregiver-resident ratio, so that they can render personalized attention to seniors suffering from dementia or other mental conditions.
With memory care rendered at these homes, individuals can still retain their independence and yet be safe within the precincts of this facility.
Home-like environment:
For those suffering with memory loss, it’s best to live in a memory care facility in a home-like ambience where common spaces are provided for socializing with others,
for meals and other activities. These facilities are so designed that they have pictures or signs to help residents feel in familiar surroundings. These centers are comfortable, and instill a lot of confidence in their residents, with the staff’s ability to
offer the best care.
Nursing care:
Here, you will find specialized staff with experience in caring for those with memory loss and other mental conditions. These residents are given
support 24x7 to improve their standard of living. Caregivers
extend support in areas of supervision, activities, meals, bathing, dressing and personal safety. Within the grounds, they are allowed to go on walks under supervision.
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