Assisted living Living in your own home

Assisted living - living in your own home

12/11/2014

The design of the ever-increasing life-time requires good consideration. It may already be a certain luxury after the hard working life. Therefore, it is not wrong to deal with your own ideas at an early stage. Which needs will remain? What amenities will be indispensable? How can the nursing care be organized appropriately? The answer to these questions should be taken as a fact that with age the demands on life tend to increase.

For a better assessment of your personal circumstances, it is also helpful if relatives, neighbors or friends are included in the planning. Often, close persons can better assess the individual circumstances and the associated care costs than those affected. However, the focus is always on the person to be cared for, as it is important to enable the most self-sufficient life in one's own home. The classic retirement home is not suitable for this. The contemporary alternative offers retirement homes such as the traditional Augustinum. The goal is always: to provide support, where desired and necessary and yet to preserve the greatest possible degree of autonomy

Living yes, household no
Even the name residence is superior to the word home. Knowing only to be kept somewhere in old age is no longer enough for social consensus. Today it is more about the preservation of quality of life. Thanks to good medical care, life in old age has become ever more liveable and no longer automatically connected with care. The Federal Ministry of Family Affairs therefore calls this stage of life an "active age" and has set up various support programs that are to come closer to the new consciousness. It is important to find a suitable way of dealing with today's 30-year-old retirement. It has already been noted that older people would like to continue living in their own home. Self-employment plays a big role. This means that ways must be shorter so that they can continue to be mastered. Especially for life seniors today want to have plenty of time, so less for obligations such as the budget. Independence is therefore another important component. This can be secured with support staff who take over, for example, the purchase or equal to the cooking. Finally, socializing remains a strong need in the senior age. The elders do not want to retire completely, but go out in good company, travel or learn something new. Living in your own four walls and yet not alone is the right solution.

Self-determined living, cared for on an outpatient basis
A residence offers the advantage that an independent life is still possible. Depending on the idea, senior citizen residences are conceivable as a residential complex, settlement or even a shared flat. The basic principle is that of a small village. All things of everyday use can be found close to the premises, so:
- foods
- Cosmetics, hairdressing
- pharmacy
- doctors
- Caretaker and much more.

Personnel in the background take care of the household or take care of ways for which the inhabitant has no leisure. Meeting places and courses as a leisure activity offer a socially completed life. Travel and delivery services are also included in the services. The installation and maintenance of a home emergency call service can also be an important aspect of assisted living. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, around the clock, reliable and competent contact persons can be reached in case of emergency. This also relieves relatives and gives the caregiver a sense of security.

If the nursing case occurs, it is cared for on an outpatient basis, i. the resident does not have to leave the facility. While nursing homes are more like hospitals, the Assisted Living residence is like a hotel with all its amenities. This also includes appropriate accessibility, so that everyday life in the residence can run at any time in dignity. This term is currently part of a social as well as political debate about the rational use of old age. In the future, the topic will only increase in significance and probably even be taken into consideration in younger years of course.

Costs under the long-term care insurance
In most cases, the care fund of the own health insurance is responsible for the assumption of the costs. In the case of a private long-term care insurance, the application must be made there. The determination of the need for care applies to the assumption of the costs. Those in need of care are all persons who are dependent on constant help with regularly recurring activities of daily life. After the application has been submitted, the medical service of the health insurance funds will prepare an expert report on the spot with the applicant and the classification of the need for long-term care will be determined. You can choose between benefits in kind and cash benefits. Time offers a lot of good information on this topic and in general on seniors. (Pm)

Picture: Rainer Sturm