Are you concerned about placing your loved one in a nursing home or assisted living facility during COVID-19?

In the past, the biggest concerns were the amount of staffing, quality of the food, and the overall condition and cleanliness of the facility.  The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly changed our priorities.

This post is a summary of our FREE GUIDE available HERE or on our website.

A Better Option

There’s a new model that offers unique advantages when dealing with risk from pandemics such as COVID-19 as well as the common flu.

Residential Assisted Living (RAL), also known as a group home, offers all the specialized care for your loved ones in the comfort of a home.  RALs have been around for years but have received a lot of attention due to their unique benefits when dealing with breakouts of illnesses.  Here are some of the top reasons RALs are safer when dealing with COVID-19 or outbreaks of illnesses such as the flu.

Less Traffic

Only 8 residents and a few staff members in a RAL.  Compare this to the larger facilities that can have 80-200 residents with 30-60 staff members.  That’s a lot more people entering the building and sharing the facility.

More Individualized Care

RALs have a caregiver for every 4 residents.  Larger facilities have their caregivers taking care of up to 14 residents each.  With less residents to manage, caregivers can build closer relationships with the residents and better monitor their physical and emotional conditions.

Less Area To Disinfect

RALs typically have 1/20th the amount of surface area to disinfect.  There’s no large lobby, recreation rooms or multiple dining rooms.  It’s a residential home.

Single Story

In a lock-down situation, many RALs have the ability to have 1st floor visitations from across a window.  It’s not perfect, but the best option should we find ourselves in a lock-down.

Summary

The choice to commit to an assisted living facility for a loved one’s care can be a very
stressful decision. This decision is more difficult during a pandemic such as COVID-19.

RALs have less traffic (residents and staff) and less square footage to disinfect.
Additionally, the lower caregiver to resident ratio provides for closer monitoring of the
residents for early detection of any changes in their conditions, eating, sleeping or
behavior. RALs have been shown to also reduce the level of stress and depression.

We have a GUIDE that provides more details on these and other protections RALs offer, including several additional measures we have taken at Evermore Senior Living to protect your loved ones.  The GUIDE is free for downloading.