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Bill Klaproth (Host): Finding the best assisted living community isn’t easy, but it can be made easier with some proper guidance. Here to give you some insider’s tips and the guidance for your assisted living search is Arielle Lewis, Director of Community Outreach, and Director of Assisted Living Sales at Chicago Methodist Senior Services. Arielle, thank you for your time. When you get the point of touring, how should we start our evaluation process?

Arielle Lewis (Guest): Sure, so I think that there are a few things you’re automatically going to be looking at as you walk in to a community. Clearly, you’re going to be looking at cleanliness, you’re going to be looking at the way that the staff and the residents are interacting. Those are all things that are very gut. But I think that there are some things that are a little more nuanced that you might want to pay a little more attention to. First, of course, for me personally, would be is the community a for- or non-profit? Are the finances going right back to care and for the residents themselves or is there a larger for-profit community? And there could be really wonderful for-profit communities, but I have found, in my experience that it does make a difference.

And then as you’re walking around, I would say watch those interactions between staff members and residents. Are they friendly? Are people smiling? Are people happy? If you’re seeing a situation that looks uncomfortable — maybe there is someone with some memory care needs that is being redirected. Is the staff doing a good job with that? Do they look comfortable with that resident, building good rapport? I always — when I’m touring with a family — will make sure to introduce the family to a few different staff members. I’ll say, “I’d like you to meet so-and-so. She’s been here for six years. She’s a really wonderful member of our team.” And if the person who is touring isn’t doing that or can’t do that, then I kind of wonder what are your staff turnover rates? Have you built a really good team in your assisted living or are you seeing a different person meeting with your family member every day? It’s not a consistent team. It’s not consistent staffing. Those are a couple of things that I would say definitely are insider things to look at.

Another thing I would say is, I’m talking about stale smells, the smell that makes you think like oh, maybe people aren’t being really cared for the way that I want to see my family cared for.

Bill: Culture and care is something really to look out for, and like you said, you can kind of feel it and know it when you walk in? Is that right?

Arielle: Definitely. I would say a really good time to come in and a good way to do that would be to visit during a meal time. I want to know do you have options for menu? Do you have different options? If my family member doesn’t like roast beef and there is roast beef on the menu, what are the other options? What can they have? Some places it’s just going to be a hot dog and not the alternative. At our assisted living we have a menu with a few different options, and there’s also an entire alternative menu. At Covenant Home, there’s a café you can eat at for lunch. I like to see those different options that give people as much independence and autonomy with their meals as possible.

In slightly higher levels of care for assisted living, something that I always look for is how many people are sitting at the table in a wheelchair, and how many people are sitting at the table using a regular chair? Right. If someone — like obviously there’s a good reason that someone might need to be in a wheelchair. Maybe it’s comfort; maybe they have trouble transferring. Other than that, I think it’s really quite an important thing for dignity to be able to sit at your table and have that be your table at your chair.

Bill: Those are really good tips. Is it a good idea to talk to the residents of the community while you’re in the hallway? Do you just stop and introduce yourself and say, “How do you like it here?” Is that a good idea?

Arielle: Yeah. Of course. Of course, you should. Another thing that I always do when I’m walking around with a family member is I’m going to introduce them to a couple of residents. Something that I’ve seen at really bad tours — because I’ve gone on tours for my own family members when we were ready to move someone into an assisted living — is when the person touring doesn’t know different residents’ names. Right, that shows that maybe this place is a little too big, and you don’t — it’s not as small as you’d like or it’s not as intimate of a community where not everyone knows each other. I know almost every resident in all of our assisted livings. I know their families, I know their kids, I know their grand kids. When I’m walking around, I think you can feel that.

Bill: That is a really good tip. When you walk in, you kind of know it, right? You said at the beginning, you can kind of look around and feel like, “Okay, I have a good feeling about this.” You can kind of start telling by your intuition and looking for these great cues and signs that you’re giving us. This is just great information.

Arielle: Yes.

Bill: When it comes to cost, what questions should we be asking?

Arielle: One thing to look for would be how do you itemize care? Is it different tiered levels? Some places that I’ve seen — we don’t do this — but some places have different itemized amounts for different care. A shower is going to be this much, help with cutting of your food is going to be this much. That’s something to look for. How do you itemize that? And then the other thing I would look for is if you do need higher levels of care, is that available within the network? Is there a continuum? And then also, is there a financial safety net? What happens if my loved one does start to run low on funds, what happens then? Because we do get phone calls often where we’ll have someone who has been in an assisted living or independent living for many, many years and at that point they start to run low on assets when they need a higher level of care. That’s something I hate to see and I hate to have a family be in that situation, so a good thing to plan ahead for.

Bill: Absolutely. We’ve been talking about touring, is it good to go online and read reviews? Is that something to give you an idea or not really? How does that work?

Arielle: I would say with a gain of salt, of course. People that write online reviews either love it or hate it. I know I’ve Googled us, and I think we have phenomenal reviews, but it’s often the people who we’ve made a really big impression on for the positive usually — hopefully. But yeah, I think it’s definitely worth looking into. Another way to look at reviews from a little bit of a larger perspective would be to ask to see the latest public health survey, which every single assisted living will have on sight in the front. You can just check to see we have — we’re CARF Accredited; we’re under IDPH Regulations. Every year, we’ll have someone from the state come out and make sure that we’re doing everything right. That’s a very objective way to make sure that it’s a place that has good care.

Bill: That is a really good insider tip. You’re doing a great job here, Arielle. Thank you. I’ve got kind of a weird question for you. What about pets? Many seniors have pets. How does that filter into the evaluation?

Arielle: I love that question. Kind of unexpected, and very cool. Different places have different pet policies. I’ll tell you, for example, our pet policy at — we have two different assisted livings. At Covenant Home you can have a pet as long as you’re able to care for that pet yourself. At Hartwell, we do it a little bit differently where we have pet visitors come in. We actually have someone that the son brings in the dog every single day. That’s awesome, and we love that. So yeah, definitely, I think pets can be a great part of people’s lives, and there’s no reason that you shouldn’t be able to have your pet still be a part of your every day.

Bill: Well, that’s good. I’m glad I asked that. That wasn’t such a weird question. Lastly, Arielle, if you could wrap it up for us, what else do we need to know about this search? Any other insider tips you can give us?

Arielle: The biggest tip to anyone when they’re in the search is just really to trust your instincts to imagine what am I going to feel coming to visit my loved one in this place? If you can, I think it’s really nice to bring your family member for a meal to come in and visit and see how they actually like it themselves. There’s nothing like that.

Bill: Well, those are great insider tips. Arielle, thank you so much for your time today. To learn or or to book a tour, please visit CMSSChicago.org, that’s CMSSChicago.org. This is Living Well with Chicago Methodist Senior Services. I’m Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.