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If you’re entertaining the idea of putting your friend or family into a nursing home— it’s important to do your research. Elder abuse, unfortunately, is a common occurrence in many assisted living facilities. So, it’s important to pick a safe, and reputable one. But where do you start? Lucky for you, we’ve done our research, and put together a guide for picking a quality nursing home. That way, you can focus on your family member— we’ve got the rest.

Choosing a Safe, Quality Nursing Home For Your Loved One

Start by figuring out what’s important to you

What kind of criteria do you need the nursing home to meet? What do you expect the nursing home to be like, and provide in terms of services? There are plenty of nursing homes that focus on different aspects. Whether those focuses be hands-on hospice type care, luxury apartment style, special care, religion, physical therapy… You should begin by establishing what you expect of the place you choose, and work backwards from there.

Reach out for feedback

The wonderful thing about our day and age is that people are oversharing. While we distaste it sometimes, it’s pretty great when you need feedback. Ask your Facebook community, check out Google reviews, talk to friends, even look to Yelp. The point is, you’ll find out the most important information by reading and speaking with people that have a first hand account.

Write down your questions

It can be overwhelming when you’re at the facility for the first time. You’re taking it in, checking for signs of trouble, and trying to decide if it’s a strong fit for your family member. So, it can be easy to forget to ask questions. But, there are plenty of important questions to ask. So, put it in writing— as well as their responses. You’re likely looking into more than one place; you don’t want to get the wires crossed.

Visit twice, one time unannounced

You’ve already visited once and asked all your questions. You likely called ahead and told them you’d be making a visit so that you could talk to someone specific. While this is a great thing to do, and will help you get a good feel for the place— visiting one more time unannounced might give you a more authentic view of the place than your organized visit. You want to catch them off guard and see how the day to day operations go. Doing so, will likely make your decision much easier.

If you’ve picked a winner— make sure you understand the contract

Read it carefully, ask questions, and don’t agree to anything you’re uncomfortable with. Ultimately, this choice will be quite personal to you. You’re making a big decision, and putting a lot of trust into this nursing home. It’s not unfair of you to be extremely thorough, and if they treat it as a burden— they are likely not the place for you. So, take the time, put in the work, ask the questions, and make the best choice for your loved one. We wish you luck as you go forth on your search!