In better facilities, the design of the building reflects the philosophy of promoting independence. Residents usually live either in private rooms with baths, individual temperature controls, and doors that lock or in small apartments with kitchenettes. They often bring their own furniture. The decor and scale are homelike throughout the building, often with one or more small sitting rooms that encourage residents to visit with each other and entertain guests. Many assisted living home facilities explicitly avoid fluorescent lighting, long corridors, tile floors, and the nursing stations that are associated with nursing homes residents. (more…)

My job is to plan for catastrophe, yet Jane’s story was an echo of my own. My mother, a fiercely seniors independent and proud woman, worked until she was 86 years old; but after she was forced into a senior nursing home care at age 93, she died within weeks. Ethel enjoyed a long life. Its end was certainly not a direct result of the loss of independence and personal dignity she experienced in the nursing home. But if I had helped her plan for her very old age, she might have spent her last months surrounded by neighbors and friends, instead of professional caretakers. (more…)