Warning: Don't End Up In The Nursing Home From Hell

Nursing homes are, in short, residences for people who can no longer manage their daily tasks at home and who need some form of assistance with day-to-day activities. Both the atmosphere and available help vary greatly from nursing home to nursing home. Nursing homes can be wonderful, nurturing places where your needs are met almost completely with both kindness and compassion, or they can be clinical and impersonal places where you feel more like a vegetable than an actual person. 

Luckily, you can prepare in advance to make sure you find the best possible nursing home for yourself, or your loved ones. With enough research and information into the nursing homes near you, you'll be able to live live to the fullest.

Make A List Of Your Options

When it became clear that my aging parents could no longer manage at home, even with the help my sisters and I tried our best to provide them, we started looking into the nursing homes in our area together. My parents were no longer mobile enough to research and tour nursing homes themselves, so we were their "eyes and ears". They had, however, already seen quite a few nursing homes before: when you get older, you tend to have friends in these places. They knew which homes had terrible reputations — and should therefore be avoided at all costs — and which ones provided homely and supportive environments.

Together, my sisters and  I, made a list of nursing home options. We started with eliminating homes my parents knew they definitely didn't want to live in, including ones where couples could not stay together. Once we had a list of possibilities, we went to investigate the nursing homes further, and in-person. That was a multi-step process, which took a surpsringly long time. We toured homes, picked the staff's brains, talked to current residents, and looked at the infrastructure. We wanted a nursing home close enough for my sisters and I to visit on a frequent basis, one that would enable my parents to stay with their GP, and one that made travel to and from a nearby hospital possible.

Before you make your list, you will probably find it helpful to consider what is most important to you in a nursing home. This may include things like:

• Specialist care
• Household help
• Shared religious beliefs
• Activities for residents
• Meals
• Hospice care
• Counseling services
• Alzheimer's care

See Also: How To Keep An Eye On Your Family Member In A Nursing Home

Touring The Home

To tour a home, simply contact the administrative department and ask if you can see the facilities. Before going ahead, you'll want to ask if the home has a waiting list, and if so how long you may have to wait before a space becomes available. Then, when you tour nursing homes, you will want to get a good general feel for the atmosphere of the home and available facilities. Here are some things you might want to look out for.