Assisted Living 101: Comfort Care Homes
It’s not easy hearing a terminal diagnosis for someone you care about. And it’s not uncommon to feel defeated. But all is not lost, with comfort care homes offering an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families through the prevention and relief of suffering through impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual.
If you’re wondering what are comfort care homes and what exactly is comfort care assisted living, well keep on reading.
What is a Comfort Care Home
Most of the people that
require comfort care assisted living have seen their fair share of doctors.
Therefore, unlike nursing homes which are hospital-like facilities, comfort
care homes are residential facilities that are designed to provide residents
with a homely environment that’ll nurture their minds and body. And, in order
not to agitate residents and provide a truly authentic homely environment,
comfort care homes opt out of hiring a team full of medical professionals.
Instead, their team consists of professional and volunteer caretakers that are
trained to work in conjunction with the residents’ physicians.
Security Team
Many residents that suffer
from mental illness like dementia have a tendency of putting themselves in
dangerous situations, like running away. Therefore, almost all comfort care
homes have a state-of-the-art security system with constantly monitored cameras
and perimeter patrols.
Medical Supervision
Opting for a ‘non-medical’
team doesn’t mean that comfort care homes are completely deprived of medical
supervision. Almost all comfort care homes are monitored by licensed nurses
that have years of experience in comfort care assisted living.
They have on-call physicians and ambulances on standby, in case of emergencies.
Services
Comfort care homes offer both
recreational and assisted living services. Most of the recreational services
consist of exercises, games, and social activities but nowadays facilities also
offer digital recreation in form of cable and high-speed internet. Assisted
living services include all day-to-day activities like dressing, bathing,
grooming, eating, medication, mobility, etc.
Care Optimization
Each resident is unique,
requiring a different level of assistance, and you don’t want a resident to be
neglected or another to be more overburdened with more care than they need.
Therefore, to optimize their care and services many facilities categorize
patients into three types:
Non-Dependent residents might need the
occasional reminder to take their pills or a hand to get up, but other than
that they’re mostly independent and able to successfully carry out their daily
activities.
Co-Dependent residents require assisted
living 25 to 80 percent of the time. It’s a wide spectrum that ranges from
requiring clothing assistance to the inability to feed themselves. Many
facilities further categorize them into different groups based on their control
over motor skills and tendency to fall. And assign an appropriate number of
staff members to constantly monitor them.
Fully-Dependent residents, despite having
some motor skills, are unable to function without assisted living. These
residents require around-the-clock care and constant monitoring. Many comfort
care homes achieve this by assigning at least one staff member, working on a
rotating shift.
Conclusion
Although many comfort care
homes are private entities, they’re supervised by both federal and state
agencies. These supervisions mandate proper security arrangements and necessary
staff training. The federal government also keeps a 5-star rating system that’s
based on health inspection, staffing, and quality measures. All these
regulations are designed to assist you in choosing a safe and comfortable home
for your loved ones.
