Carol sometimes thinks that “all she’d really done was swap one institution for another.” Do you agree with her? What’s your experience been like with senior living facilities?
Unfortunately she may have a point. It is important to truly evaluate any senior living facility to understand what it actually furnishes. Carol’s place was incredibly ritzy for most facilities–and most residents seemed financially independent–very unusual.
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Since I am of an age when I may have to make that decision in the future, the author may have a point. It seems to me depending on your financial status, it can be either ritzy like Carol’s facility or a cheaper model with less services. As part of my retirement, I work with hospice and find myself visiting both kinds of homes. It can be depressing, especially when you find your client sitting alone looking out the windows. Americans in general do not take care of their seniors, Our immigrant friends do!!!
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I disagree with Carol. A prison has to be one of the worst places to live. Senior living facilities can all be very different and the resident’s experiences are all based on their own needs and abilities. The facility that Carol was in seemed to be posh.
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I think this was very much a valid point - although, as others have pointed out, her particular retirement community skewed to extremely affluent (saunas! climbing walls! DJ parties!) Certainly in the real world retirement communities the comparison becomes even more apt.
What was not described were the medical services available: In-house dementia unit? In-house assisted living with physical and occupational therapy? In-house hospice care? Senior Living oftentimes have these services available, whether or not they are ‘posh’. Perhaps prisons do, also?
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I disagree. I work in a nursing home. Residents have rights to make their own decisions for the most part. The main similarity is that they are both under supervision. And even then, residents have a right to leave the building with family.
Carol might occasionally think this, but prison is such an extreme environment with strict limitations and little comfort. I’m sure many prisons are awful. The retirement community had structure but not restriction. Big difference.
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I think it is quite unusual for a high-end private home not to vet its applicants using a strict qualification sheet.
Carol did well adapting to a new environment.
I live in a retirement community. It is wonderful. It is run by the Franciscans. It has various levels. I live in Independent living. It is an apartment community with people over the age of 60. It is what you make of it. You can join in activities or just live as if it were an apartment. It is a bit of an institution.They take care of you by providing buses to doctors. They provide meals if you want them. It is much easier than caring for my home was. It is a home with someone to help when you need it
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I agree with that statement. They were both institutions but with very different rules. As a physical therapist, I actually have a patient in an assisted living facility and she absolutely hates it. She complains that it’s the same thing day after day. Breakfast at the same time lunch at the same time dinner at the same time all with the same people.
They are both institutions, but that word means very different things in these two contexts. As others pointed out, the rules are significantly different, but it would be impossible to ignore the “institutional” aspects of a retirement home. You are less confined, but definitely scheduled. I do wonder if others who have been in both institutions would share this belief.