The Arbor Company Senior Living Blog

This blog was published on February 19, 2016 and updated on December 26, 2019.

The right assisted living community can make a big difference in a senior’s quality of life. Many seniors find that transitioning to senior living opens new doors, allowing them to master new hobbies, cultivate meaningful friendships, and get the help they need while still remaining as independent as possible. Quality dining, exceptional activities, and access to nearby family should figure prominently in the decision. However, it’s also important to ensure that the community can meet a senior’s care needs, especially if they might change. 

Companion-style living is a unique approach to senior care in memory care communities. It saves money, but more importantly, it can help seniors feel less isolated and more connected to their community. For caregivers who feel anxious about transitioning a loved one to memory care, companion-style living offers reassurance that a loved one won’t be making the transition alone. Here are five key benefits of companion-style living in memory care.

Senior living is a broad industry, giving care and options for older adults who live with different challenges and preferences. Today’s seniors are fortunate to have such a variety of solutions to suit their needs, but so many choices can quickly lead to feelings of confusion. For example, if you have done your due diligence to narrow down your senior living choice to assisted living, you may be surprised to find out there are multiple levels of care within your assisted living community. Each of these levels of care features a different cost, as well as a different amount of hands-on care.

In the popular understanding of dementia, people with dementia can’t safely live alone. They don’t recognize their loved ones and might barely even know themselves. This portrayal is a simplistic picture of a complex collection of diseases. Dementia is a slow and unpredictable illness. It doesn’t always manifest as cognitive issues. For example, the key symptom of a dementia called primary progressive aphasia is a loss of the ability to speak, frontotemporal dementia might manifest as behavioral changes, and Alzheimer’s may progress slowly for many years.

Assisted living offers the additional assistance, socialization, and peace of mind to seniors who need it. However, many assisted living communities offer even more health and wellness opportunities to their residents. From onsite doctor visits to health screenings, residents can take advantage of a variety of services only steps away from their apartment door. Therapy services are just one of these health amenities that assisted living residents can benefit from.

For decades—and even longer—dementia was associated with a diminished quality of life. We now know that is simply not the case: Seniors with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias can live interesting, interactive, purposeful lives. The activities they enjoy might change because of their condition, but that doesn’t mean they are resigned to boredom, day after day. Here are seven engaging activities for seniors with dementia:

In the ongoing struggle to adequately diagnose dementia and care for seniors suffering from the condition, this ray of hope emerged late last year: Dementia rates among those over 65 dropped 24 percent in the United States between 2000 and 2012. That said, millions of families still deal with loved ones living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Declining rates notwithstanding, the need for outstanding dementia care remains a priority in this country.

Outstanding assisted living is also a priority for today’s seniors, and the two goals appear as if they should run parallel to each other. Although dementia care does incorporate many principles of assisted living, the two are not the same. Yet both are incredibly important to seniors and their families.

The concept of assisted living sometimes conjures up negative misconceptions of loved ones suffering through a reduced quality of life, disinterested staffers and boredom, but these stereotypes can actually prevent seniors and their families from truly understanding assisted living and confidently making the decisions that are best for their loved ones’ well-being.

The fear of boredom is especially vexing—the idea that once a senior enters assisted living, life becomes dull. For the best senior living communities, this is anything but the case. Understanding senior living is understanding that quality of life, including events, social life and amenities, should be the primary focus of communities and their staff. Here is how this goal is accomplished:

Mealtime is supposed to be an enjoyable, social reprieve from the grind of everyday life. But many seniors find that meal planning, grocery shopping, and meal preparation eventually become more exhausting than enjoyable.  

Between clipping coupons, budgeting for food, meal planning, grocery shopping, and meal preparation, meals can be a real hassle. Seniors might need to ask family members and friends for help, thus making meals even less enjoyable. But understanding assisted living means understanding that assisted living takes the pain out of preparing and planning meals.