Here are a couple questions we hear all the time. What exactly does ‘assisted living’ mean? What kind of care do you give assisted living residents? Both are very valid questions because family members need to know what kind of help their elder loved one in an assisted living residence will get once she comes to Homeplace of Henderson.
Assisted living, as defined in Kentucky statute, is helping residents with activities “of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living.” In these situations, a staff member gives assistance to a resident who has at least a “minimal ability to verbally direct or physically participate” in the activity, according to Kentucky law.
The care we provide our assisted living residents is—basically—determined by allowing each resident to tell us what she needs. Now that doesn’t mean a resident has to specifically vocalize her needs or desires, although that’s certainly an option. What often happens is that a resident lets us know by her actions, and our trained staff is able to pick up on this and make an evaluation for the level of assistance she needs.
Now knowing the law and our general philosophy, let’s look at how Homeplace puts it into practice. One of our guiding principles is we want each resident to live as independent and active of a life as possible. If our staff gives too much help when a resident doesn’t truly need it, she will become dependent on us doing the task for her, and in turn, become less active. Let’s say a resident can put her shirt on and button it. If that’s the case, then we do all that we can to allow her to dress herself. Our staff is trained to remain calm, patient, and encouraging, and so we will never rush her to hurry up. Perhaps the only help she needs are gentle reminders or a small gesture of help along the way. At some point, as her skills decline, our staff will reevaluate her needs and find ways to give her the new level of care she needs. The next level of assistance might be guiding the button into the hole and let her finish each buttoning. Later, we might have to button all the buttons, but let her tuck her shirt in.
Letting each resident determine the level of care she receives and working with each resident are tenets of person-centered care, which is what we practice at Homeplace. Evaluating each resident’s needs and then having enough staffed professionals to give that care to each sets us apart from other communities in the area. We know that all sixty residents at our facility are not the same. Each have different ways of living, and our staffing levels allow us to let each live uniquely.
The main thing to remember from this, we believe, is that we make every attempt to let an assisted living resident remain as independent as possible for as long as she can, while still giving the comfort, understanding, and patience she needs to remain comfortable.
To contact the Homeplace of Henderson, email Jessica Beaven at jessica.beaven@homeplaceofhenderson.com or call at (270) 577-0534.