Tips To Help Your Parent Find A Safe Nursing Home Facility

If your parent’s mental or physical health is declining, you might be considering moving them to a nursing home facility. As difficult as this decision can already be, it can be even more upsetting when you are unsure about the safety of the facility in which they could live and receive care.

To ease your concerns and protect your vulnerable parent, you can help them search for a safe facility. Below are tips for where to start your search.

Online Research

Your search for a nursing home will likely start online. Thanks to various online tools and programs, you can conduct comprehensive searches for nursing homes based on:

• Location
• Ratings
• Reviews
• Accepted payment options
• Services offered

When looking online, check multiple sites. If you find a few places that interest you, search the facility name to find articles, notes and complaints tied to the home or staff members.

Tour The Facility

If possible, touring a nursing home can be quite valuable to get a sense of their treatment of residence and the quality of the facility. When you visit, keep an eye out for:

• Security measures at entries and exits
• Number of staff members present
• Cleanliness of common areas and resident rooms
• How other residents are acting
• Social activities offered

These components can shed light on the residents’ lifestyle, whether they have regular contact with people and how the staff treats them.

However, between COVID-19 restrictions and the challenges of traveling if you live out of state, touring a facility may not be feasible. Thus, you might glean information in other ways.

Other Ways To Assess A Facility

Adequate staffing is crucial in preventing nursing home abuse and neglect. To assess staffing levels, you might call and see how long it takes to reach someone or ask to talk to an administrator to determine if they are available to answer questions and address concerns.

You could also talk to other people who are familiar with the facility. Consider speaking with family members visiting a resident and residents themselves. You might also look at sites like Glassdoor.com, where former employees of a business can leave reviews on their employment experience.

When you are active in finding a care facility for your parent, you can be more confident that it meets your standards and your parent’s needs.