Assisted Living Directory Blog

This has been a common subject of ours over the years – weeding out the good from the bad when it comes to assisted living, and choosing a facility. Like with buying a car or home, assisted living facilities often come with snazzy ads, glossy brochures, and slick sales people telling you and your loved ones everything you want to know.
It would be quite a mistake to take everything said or read about a facility as gospel, and having a good devil’s advocate with you (whether it is your own internal voice, or a friend or family member) will serve you well in the long run.
I thought about this subject again today as I was cleaning out old e-mails, and found one that I had flagged that had a link to a great article. The article is from Smartmoney.com and really dives in deep with discussing several of the things that facilities may not tell you when they are giving you the full-court press to sign on the dotted line – things like raising prices for no reason, or promising more than can be delivered.
I thought this article, even though it is an older article, is especially relevant at this time of year, as many families are seeing family members, and perhaps deciding on whether to put mom or dad into a facility.
Question everything – and get it in writing – that’s about the best advice we can give. You can read the full article here:

We are really excited to have teamed up with another great Senior Care service – Seniorliving.net – who operate mostly out of Virginia and Maryland at the moment, but they are soon expanding to other states, like Pennsylvania and Ohio.

They offer a great service to help families to place their loved ones into assisted living facilities and long term care.

The great thing about them is that they offer expert advice on choosing the right senior care community – and will help you sort through the difficult questions like Medicare, Medicaid, and even things like who offers the right type of memory care for you or your family member.   Their experts know the right questions to ask, and they are also aware of the most common mistakes and pitfalls a family can make when looking into assisted living.  These senior care experts can also help you put together a step-by-step moving guide to ensure a smooth transition into the new facility, and will even help you explore different funding options to help you pay for your care.

We invite you to give them a try below (remember, you must be a Virginia, DC or Maryland resident at the time of this writing to qualify for free help.

We spend a lot of time adding facilities, writing articles, and writing on our blog. Of course, over time – things change – businesses go under, new facilities are built, and websites…..they change too.

We rely on our readers and site visitors to some extent to let us know if information is inaccurate on our site, or if a website link is not appropriate.

A big thank you goes out to “Melissa” – she wrote us this week letting us know that one of the assisted living facilities on our Las Vegas page had a link to a website that went to a “naughty” site…if you know what I mean.

How embarrassing for us. I remember adding that facility years ago to our site, and at the time, I remember checking out the website, which, at the time, was legitimate.

As we know, and have learned, websites change, and sometimes change hands. I believe this is exactly what happened, and the person who took over the website in question and “redirected” it to a site that was **not** rated “PG” by any means.

We have corrected the listing.

At any rate, we are grateful to Melissa for pointing it out. We try very hard to keep our site clean, accurate and safe, and take very seriously when the information on our website is questionable.

From time to time, I will post questions that I receive through the site – especially if I don’t have a clue on the answer. Often times, our readers come through with valuable guidance and direction. Here is the question I received today – if anyone has any insight, it would be much appreciated!

“I was wondering if there are assisted living facilities in Minnesota that accommodate airborne allergy sufferers? Thank you. Andrea”

This is a message we received that we are posting for Theater 68 – contact info below!

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Hi!

We are offering 2 for 1 tickets with a group of 10 or more to all senior citizens in Los Angeles for our new show Radioland at Theatre 68!  This is a radio play set in the 1940′s!

I know that many senior centers offer field trips of this sort and we would love to be considered!  Our theatre is one of the top 99 seat theatre’s in Los Angeles located on Sunset just East of Western!

Here is a copy of our press release.  If you have any questions or to set up a group, please feel free to contact me, Katy,  at theatre68@gmail.com or call me at 323 960 7827.  To find out more about our theatre, please go to www.theatre68.com!

Thank you and I hope we can work together to entertain all the senior citizen’s in LA!!!!

LOST IN RADIOLAND – A WORLD PREMIERE COMEDY
September 4th through October 17th, 2009

Los Angeles, CA – September 1, 2009 – Ronnie Marmo, Artistic Director of the 68 Cent Crew Theatre Company, presents the World Premiere of “Lost In Radioland”, a riotous, 1940’s-era comedy set against the background of suspense.  “Lost in Radioland” begins its run on September 4th, 2009 at Theatre 68.

“Lost in Radioland” was co-written and directed by Ryan Paul James, a nationally syndicated radio host (“Mickey Mouse Club”, “What If?”, “Rewind”), and comedienne Denny Siegel (“Whose Line is it Anyway”, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”).

“Lost in Radioland” is a comedy set in 1940′s Hollywood.  The biggest stars of the day have come together to perform the suspenseful, nationally syndicated radio play “Night Stories.” Egos clash and love triangles erupt as the stars try to work together.  Meanwhile, the city of Los Angeles is on edge with the breaking news of an escaped killer. When on-set drama meets real-life danger, who will survive?

The 68 Cent Crew Theatre Company, which will be celebrating its ninth anniversary on February 14th, 2010, continues to produce unique and relevant works. In the past nine years it has produced over 40 productions to critical success, including “The Knights of Mary Phagan” (2006), the Lenny Bruce tribute “Lenny’s Back (and Boy is He Pissed)” (2006), “Bent” (2007) and the perennially popular “Bill W. and Dr. Bob”, a touching and funny dramatization of the events leading to the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous. Recently celebrating its 350th performance, “Bill W. and Dr. Bob” continues its run through October 18th.  The 68 Cent Crew also just completed the critically-acclaimed, six month run of the first ever “13 By Shanley Festival”, presenting 13 collected plays by John Patrick Shanley, with 55 actors and 12 directors, all on one stage at Theatre 68.

Lost in Radioland runs September 4th through October 17th, 2009. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Theatre 68, a beautiful and spacious venue with 99 seats and free rooftop parking, is located at 5419 Sunset Blvd., just east of Western Ave. in Hollywood. Running time is 80 minutes with no intermission.

The Cast: Selected Credits
Ronnie Marmo (Artistic Director) – (Now appearing as Ronnie Dimestico on “General Hospital”)
Melissa Disney – (The Simpsons, Stained, Up In The Air, Snare)
Charles Hoyes – (Field Of Dreams, Without A Trace, Cold Case, Criminal Minds)
Katy Jacoby – (Pizza with Bullets, Stage 4, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea)
Jesse Mackey – (Southland, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien)
Virginia Novello – (Current lead “Colinas”, Mexican TV Drama)
Denny Siegel – (Whose Line is It Anyway, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart)
Katie Zeiner – (Sex In The City, The Hughleys)

National Assisted Living Week 2009 is Sunday, September 13, 2009 to Saturday, September 19, 2009.

So, what does that really mean?  I am seeing that it is this ‘special’ week in the news, and posted on many caregiving sites and blogs, but I am still not totally sure what to do?  Am I alone?

Thinking about it more as I went to get a glass of water, I decided that, like any other recognized holiday or occasion, I guess it can be what you make of it.  I mean, I don’t really celebrate Easter – instead I’ll take the day off and usually go for a hike, or maybe out to lunch with my wife.   Someone else might go to church and then to a brunch with family.

New Year’s Eve – another example – which happens to be my birthday too.  I tend to celebrate by having a nice dinner, and then going to bed really early (for some reason, I can’t ever seem to make it past 10pm).   Most other people are out hootin’ and hollerin’ in the freezing cold waiting for a ball to drop.

So, National Assisted Living Week – what does it mean, and what to do, since there are no formal rules or guidelines that I have been able to find.  I guess, like anything else, it can be what you make of it.

Here are some of my ideas:

1) If you know a caregiver – reach out and offer thanks, or maybe offer to cook a meal.  Caregivers are most often worn out, and have little time to tend to their own needs.

2) If you know someone in an assisted living facility, pay them a visit, or write them a note.  Loneliness is often a by-product of living in a long-term care environment.

3) Take care of yourself and commit to it long term – Many (but not all) of the ailments that cause people to go into an assisted living environment can be delayed or avoided completly by taking GREAT care of yourself – eating well, quitting smoking, exercising both mind, body and spirit, etc.

4) If you have aging parents who are still healthy, take a moment to give thanks.

5) If you are looking into assisted living for yourself, or a loved one – commit to researching any and all possible facilities thoroughly – remember, there are good ones, and not-so-good ones out there.

So there are a few of my ideas for National Assisted Living Week.  I’d love to hear yours!

- David

I came across a December 2008 Forbes magazine article that lists the 10 most “boring” cities in America, and since I am a native Arizonan, I was not thrilled to see 2 of our desert cities on the list – Chandler being one of them! You can read the full article here
That’s unfortunate, as I believe that Chandler has a lot to offer. Sure, it’s suburbia and gets lost in the shadow of Phoenix, but Chandler offers a great family-friendly community atmosphere, nice homes, and of course, plenty of sunshine year-round that allows residents and visitors to keep up with their golf game, running, hiking and the like.
Chandler is also a great place for seniors and retirees – plenty of assisted living homes in Chandler have been built in recent years due to the growing influx of “permanent snowbirds.”

I like Chandler – I have been there many times, and I think it is a well planned community with a lot to offer.   I actually don’t care for Phoenix that much – too busy, and too big.  I am happy settling for life in the shadows – or at least visiting,  from time to time,  not-so-boring Chandler!

I think this was a great idea – an assisted living facility in Terre Haute hosted a “block party” complete with a band (Men of Note), entertainment and free food to celebrate the facility’s one year anniversary. This was also an effort to reach out to the community.
This idea is a great way for the residents to have fun, and to also increase awareness of the facility and services to members of the community. You can see a news/video clip about the event here.

Our family just got back from seeing Grandma Irene in the Pittsburgh area.   We had a great trip, and she got to spend time with her granson “Johnnie.”

Gramma Irene is amazing. She is turning 79 this month, and is as sharp as a tack.   She’s in great health too, so we can be thankful for that!   I think the reason that she is doing so well is that she stays very active.  As you can see, she has a garden that she tends to (we made a wonderful organic salad that evening from the greens picked in the picture below).   She also does yoga several times a week, and walks almost every day.

She also eats incredibly well, and keeps up on all of the latest health information regarding diet and nutrition.

I think Gramma Irene is the exception in this area, unfortunately.  From what we could see, there was a lot of unhealthy choices for eating in the Pittsburgh area.  It was really hard to find “healthy” food at any of the restaurants we visited.   There weren’t many people out exercising either.   These weren’t just my observations – we all took note.    Maybe we noticed since my family is from Colorado (voted this month in a major publication as being the “leanest” state.

Pittsburgh has a high percentage of seniors as compared to the national average.  Currently, over 15% of the population of Pittsburgh are seniors, as opposed to the 12% for the rest of the country.   For this reason, we made a dedicated page to Pittsburgh Assisted Living on our site today.

We hope to see Gramma Irene again this holiday season.  She usually comes out to see us at that time, and stays for the week!

Gramma Irene's House in Pittsburgh

My wife and I recently visited Las Vegas.  I had been there numerous times as a kid, but, on our recent visit, I was reminded of what an awesome city it is!   We can’t wait to go back.

One thing that always strikes me about Las Vegas is that there are plenty of seniors there – seniors having a good time (for the most part).   Seniors, retirees, and snowbirds can be seen at the shows, gaming, and eating great food at the plentiful dining options in and around Las Vegas.

There are also so many ways to stay healthy in Las Vegas – from golfing, to walking or running, to hiking and even just walking up and down the strip “people watching” (one of our favorite activities).     Las Vegas is also delightful most of the year in terms of weather – especially in the fall and winter when it is usually around the 70′s and 80′s.   Rarely do you see snow in Las Vegas.

So, because of all of the glorious things Las Vegas has to offer, we have now dedicated a page on our site to Las Vegas assisted living.   This page also encompasses Henderson – another great town in the Las Vegas area.

If you are going to visit Las Vegas, and want a recommendation for a place to stay – my wife and I love the Sunset Station hotel in Henderson.  It’s much less smoky than the other hotels, and is off the beaten path a bit (which we like).  There are a number of good dining options in the area too.