By now, most of our lives have already been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 coronavirus situation. While there has not been a mandated government shutdown of assisted living communities, our partners have instituted protocols to ensure their residents and staff stay as safe and healthy as possible. The coronavirus has made it crucial that practical steps are taken to safeguard the seniors we serve and the team members who care for them.

We have outlined a few of these protocols and precautions below that are based on the CDC and Health Department guidelines and are in place effective immediately.

Visiting Restrictions

• Only essential visitors will be permitted to enter the communities until further notice.
• Essential visitors are defined as: adults over the age of 18 who are medical providers, hospice care providers, or visitors of residents who are at the end of life.
• Anyone entering a senior community will be screened by: digital registration processes, answer detailed health and travel screening questions and have their temperature read and documented.
• All staff will be screened and temperatures taken and documented at the start of each shift.
• If an essential visitor, including medical personnel, has traveled outside of the United States in the last 14 days, those that do not pass the screening process or have a fever greater than 100.4 will not be allowed to visit.

Community Precautions

In addition to limiting visitors, they are implementing the following guidelines within the community itself:

• Limiting gatherings of individuals to no more than 10 people.
• Activities will continue in a limited way to avoid close contact and supplies will be properly sanitized between uses.
• Increase in frequency of cleaning and sanitizing rooms and common areas
• Many are suspending normal meal services in the restaurants and dining rooms, but are offering complimentary room service as well as to-go options at no additional charge.
• Working on new ways of keeping everyone connected by posting updates on websites, helping residents utilize technology such as FaceTime and Skype with family and friends, hosting virtual classes and offering families additional phone, text or email alerts.

Can you still move to a Senior Living Community?

Yes! We continue to monitor the situation, many communities are still able to take in new residents and work with those that are both urgent and non-urgent moves. Communities have suspended in-person tours and events, but are able to do live virtual tours and answer any questions over the phone or by email. In addition, many communities are only allowing move-ins into a private, at least for the first 14 days. At that time if appropriate, the new resident can be moved into a semi-private or shared room.

The situation remains fluid and we are here to help be a resource to help answer any and all of your questions.

Please stay safe,

Rachel, David and Johnell

Team Exceptional Senior Placement

Very helpful advice in this commentary  for what signs to pay attention to as our loved ones age. Don’t ignore the signs but use them as an opportunity to implement support at the time that is needed.

Read here.

This is a great article from Forbes that gives a very clear explanation as to why Medicare does not cover long term care while also offering options that do. Everyone should read this to get a good base knowledge as to what you can expect.

Read the article here.

This article from the International Policy Digest has good broad overview of some of the challenges we face when aging, however there is so much more to it and each unique situation needs to be considered. We love that we get to have in-depth comprehensive conversations with our families that help them think through aging and the challenges so they can be better prepared.

Read the article here

This Huffpost article really highlights how far we have strayed from taking control and making our own decisions towards end of life. We need to have honest conversations with doctors about death, odds of treatment, and quality of life to better assess and make our own informed choices.

Read the article here

A very important article from the NY Times with some really helpful tips on how to slowly navigate talking with your parents about money and making sure you are prepared to take over financial responsibilities should that time come.

Read the full article here

This article from the New Hampshire Union Leader contains really helpful and insightful tips on how to deal with technology and our loved ones experiencing dementia. It also shares additional clues that someone may be experiencing some cognitive decline look out for, as well as how we can help make their technology use less stressful.

Read article here.

We are really excited about the new wave of technology to support both our older adult clients and their families. Exceptional Senior Placement is constantly on the look out for ways the newest technology can help our families and this article from CNBC touches on few of those interesting products we have explored.

Read here

Great Ted Talk to get us thinking about aging – something that, in case you haven’t noticed, affects us all.  Isabel Allende  reminds us all in this talk that aging is about attitude and it is great to start letting go and saying yes to life!  Watch this great TED Talk below:

A very timely piece from Forbes fresh off the recent blackouts and what has frequently been called our new norm in California.  It’s imperative that our loved ones are prepared and we have a family plan to keep everyone safe during the blackouts.  Please take the time to put a plan together and make sure your loved ones are ready for potentially an entire week without power. Those who require electronic medical equipment must especially have a concrete plan in place.

Read the article here.