Does Location Matter When Choosing Assisted Living?
What’s the most important factor in a business? Location, location, location. We’ve all heard it, but how much does it play a role when choosing the right assisted living facility for you or a loved one?
As important as location is, it remains just one factor to consider, although it usually has an impact on other considerations, such as price. Below are some reasons seniors might choose to live somewhere other than their top choice city:
1) There’s no adequate assisted living facility in their hometown.
Like most of us, seniors generally want to stay in their communities, whenever possible. It’s where all their friends are and often they’ve spent years putting down roots in that neighborhood. But if it’s a small, rural town, there might not be an assisted living facility nearby, or if there is one, it’s less likely to have all the amenities they need. In that case, they might be better off moving to a nearby city with a better-equipped assisted living facility.
2) Proximity to medical facilities.
Assisted living facilities and nursing homes can provide significant medical care to their residents, but they have their limitations. While doctors may visit their patients in assisted living facilities, most facilities don’t have a doctor in the building 24/7, and as we age, we’re more likely to need professional medical treatment. Those with chronic conditions are especially likely to need to stay close to a medical facility, which means even an affordable assisted living facility in their home town might not be the right choice if it’s too far from the nearest hospital.
3) Proximity to loved ones.
Assisted living facilities can provide seniors with everything they need on a day-to-day basis, but nothing can replace the care and attention of close friends and family. Even if the senior’s children or grandchildren can’t take care of them in their home full time, just having them nearby to be available for visits and check-ins can mean a lot. Social isolation is one of the biggest challenges seniors face, but that can be abated by having someone nearby who cares for them and is readily available.
While some seniors might want to stay close to home, others are just as likely to want to move away, depending on the circumstances. If they live in the Midwest, for example, they might want to relocate to a warmer climate. Enough seniors choose to do this that seeing all their friends move south might create an incentive for them to follow. That way they’ll have a ready-made community when they get down there, and as a bonus, warmer climates have been known to help ease chronic conditions like arthritis, in which case their doctor might even recommend the relocation.
At Stillwater Senior Living, we do everything we can to accommodate the needs of our seniors in our community. We are conveniently located to a variety of other medical providers, and will help our seniors stay in touch with their family in any way that we can if their family lives far away.
CONTACT US TODAY for more information and a tour of our beautiful state-of-the-art community.