Contents
- Useful information about choosing a good nursing home
- Types of institutions
- Cost of living and care in nursing homes in 2022
- How to understand that a loved one will be better off in a nursing home
- Criteria to help you choose the best nursing home
- Popular questions and answers
From year to year, life expectancy is growing in the world: new medicines appear, medicine becomes more accessible. There are statistics that the average life expectancy in Our Country is now 66,7 years. And by 2030, with the most optimistic forecast of Rosstat, it will be 77,9 years (1). But behind the beautiful numbers is an acute phenomenon – the problem of aging.
One of the recipes for its solution is nursing homes, which in recent years are less and less perceived in a negative way. The improvement of relations with these institutions began in 2015, when the law (2) allowed to give subsidies for living in private nursing homes. Provided that the commercial institution is included in the register of social services to the population. In addition, state institutions have not gone anywhere.
– According to statistics, the majority of s in old age want to live their whole lives in their house or apartment. Nevertheless, modern nursing homes are more comfortable for an elderly person to live than an ordinary apartment. Everything here is equipped for the convenience of people with a lack of self-service: a barrier-free environment, functional beds for bedridden patients, anti-decubitus mattresses. It is also important that in boarding houses the wards are under the round-the-clock supervision of doctors and nurses – the situation is excluded when the elderly, for example, fell and lies until their relatives return from work. The ward can afford to spend time outdoors among the greenery every day – usually boarding houses have beautiful areas for walking, this is important when it’s hard for a person to walk and he can no longer get to the nearest park, – comments Elena Sukhacheva, project coordinator of the Attention and Care nursing school.
We will tell you how to choose a nursing home in 2022 and how much this service costs.
Useful information about choosing a good nursing home
| Staff | They have extensive experience and experience in caring for the elderly, responsive and sensitive to the requests of the guests |
| Interiors | Reminiscent of a hotel or a real residential building: the interior should be cozy, and not evoke associations with state institutions |
| Accommodations | No more than three or four people in one room, a block system is possible (a bathroom for two or three rooms) |
| Leisure | Interest groups, psychological groups, billiards, master classes, residents are actively involved in creative activities |
| Territory | Near the boarding school there is a place for walking, nearby a green pedestrian zone to expand the geography of the walk, to engage in Nordic walking and other activities |
| Food | At least three meals a day, with the possibility of planning an individual menu. For residents who find it difficult to walk on their own, nurses bring food to their rooms |
| Preliminary tour | The best institutions hold open days and are unscheduled ready to arrange a tour for those who want to live with them |
| Possibility of personal care | The nursing home should be able to provide a nurse or other specialist (for a fee) to help care for an elderly person if he cannot take care of himself |
| Legal work | Be in the register of social service providers in your region, if the institution provides medical services, then have the appropriate license |
Types of institutions
There is no clear classification of nursing homes. It is rather conditional, because in many respects this institution is still developing.
By name
Geriatric Center
This name is most often understood as a hospital that specializes in the treatment of people 60+. Accordingly, the competencies of doctors are focused more on age-related diseases. The building has the most comfortable conditions for the movement or transportation of people who find it difficult to walk: railings, walking sticks, wheelchair park.
Gerontological Center
This is a 2 in 1 institution: a nursing home, i.e. with rooms for life and leisure, as well as a medical facility at its base. Most often, this is a geriatric clinic and a hospital.
Special homes for single elderly
There are not so many of them left throughout Our Country – a little less than 200. These are typical high-rise buildings that were built taking into account the fact that the elderly will live there. On the ground floor there is a therapist’s office, a shop, sometimes a dining room. Apartments there were given primarily to veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Often in exchange for their apartments, which the city took into municipal ownership. The veteran was paid an allowance, and also removed from him the responsibility for paying utility bills.
Taking into account the specifics of assistance
Psychoneurological boarding schools
They take care of people suffering from mental disorders.
Boarding schools for people with limited mobility
For people who cannot move independently.
By location
In the city
As a rule, these are low-rise buildings with their own territory.
In the private sector
They build their own or convert ready-made large cottages of a large area, in which they equip rooms, bathrooms, living rooms and dining rooms.
Outside the city
More often located in ecologically clean areas, near the forest.
By founder
Private, they are also commercial institutions
This is not always a synonym for premium class and high cost, there are quite affordable options. There are also entire networks of boarding schools, when one company owns several institutions.
Public nursing homes
Often, if there are not enough places in social boarding schools in the region, then only those who have no relatives are accepted there.
Cost of living and care in nursing homes in 2022
If we talk about state social homes, there is a fixed tariff: from 75% of the pension of an elderly person who does not have anyone to provide for. The rest of the costs are paid by the state.
In private nursing homes, pricing is dictated by the market. That is, the price depends on the range of services, living conditions, and competition makes its contribution.
In Moscow, Moscow region, the prices for a day of stay in a private nursing home are as follows:
- in the economy segment – from 800 rubles,
- in the middle segment – from 1700 rubles.
In the regions, the cost per day is lower.
The standard option – accommodation, good nutrition (3-6 meals a day), leisure, basic care with round-the-clock supervision of medical staff in a stationary mode of such a clinic of a full-scale private or state complex for the care of the elderly costs 1700-3500 rubles per day.
Accommodation in a single room is more expensive than accommodation in multi-bed rooms. At the same time, in the economy segment, where several people are accommodated in rooms, and there are not so many staff, the cost of daily accommodation is already in the range of 800-1400 rubles per patient. In the premium segment, the cost can exceed 5000 rubles per day. The full price of the stay is often higher, as various services are added to it, including treatment, rehabilitation with the help of specialist doctors, and sessions with psychologists.
You can find out the exact price only by contacting the administration and describing the situation of your loved one, whom you are going to place in a boarding house. Care for people with dementia, Parkinson’s disease, bedridden patients is more expensive. At the same time, companies often meet halfway, reducing the cost of living and care when paying in bulk: from three months or more.
Nursing homes are now considering different payment terms. For example, they conclude an annuity agreement with the elderly – the institution assumes all the expenses for the care, treatment and maintenance of a person (some even pay a monthly allowance, it all depends on the agreement). In return, after the death of the patient, his apartment goes to the boarding school as payment. This is a compromise option for the elderly, who have no heirs and are no longer able to take care of themselves on their own. There are also more complex schemes, when an elderly person is taken to live in a boarding house, and his apartment is rented out in order to cover treatment and other services from income.
How to understand that a loved one will be better off in a nursing home
The topic is complex, it is important for her to choose the right words. Because in this case, from showing concern to resenting an elderly person (“You want to get rid of me!”), There is a fine line. At the same time, there is also a law – specifically, articles of the Family Code (3) – which expressly states that adult children are obliged to support their parents if they can no longer work and need help.
One of the forms of care for the elderly may be just the definition of a boarding house. Here it is important to come to a common denominator: modern professions do not allow a person to receive a decent salary and at the same time devote a minimum of time to work. Sometimes we do not find the strength to call our loved ones, let alone come and spend time together.
Moreover, there are a number of age-related diseases in which a person needs almost round-the-clock care and supervision. In addition, the item of expenses for medicines, special food, rehabilitation means is growing. Therefore, a reasonable solution is to help an elderly loved one move to a special institution in order to have time to lead both a business life and devote time to relatives.
– It is much better for an elderly person to live in a nursing home if he can no longer serve himself and at the same time the conditions do not allow him to hire a nurse who can live with him. For example, his children and grandchildren live in the same apartment with him, and there is no personal space for the nurse. According to our observations, in such a situation, the nurse is uncomfortable to work, inevitable domestic conflicts occur, she quickly gets tired and this affects the quality of care. Also, a boarding house will be the best solution if your elderly relative, on the contrary, lives alone, but in another city. It is not safe to be completely unsupervised, but it is also difficult to control the work of a nurse from a distance, says our expert Elena Sukhacheva.
Criteria to help you choose the best nursing home
Location
Where it is convenient to get to and at the same time the wishes of a loved one are taken into account – whether he wants to live in the city or agrees to give up the benefits of the metropolis in favor of the location of the boarding school in an ecologically clean place.
Having a daily routine
Older people often suffer from depression and apathy – they don’t know what to do with themselves, because age has “cut off” many opportunities. Getting in shape will help the routine. Psychologists say that repeated rituals have a positive effect on mental, and therefore physical health.
Free visit opportunity
It is important for a loved one to know that you are nearby, you can come at any time outside the schedule and spend time with him both on the territory of the boarding house and beyond. In some boarding schools, guests live only during the cold season, and if they wish, they go to their dachas in the summer. Or vice versa: relatives place their elderly relatives in a boarding house only for the duration of their own vacation or in a special life situation. You can agree that you will pick up a relative for the weekend, and on weekdays he is in a boarding school.
Providing qualified medical care
Not all nursing homes accept specialist doctors on staff. But if your loved one needs regular medical supervision, then you should look for a boarding house that provides such an opportunity.
Diverse food
The nursing home is often associated with poor quality hospital food. At the same time, the digestive tract in the elderly is weak, “capricious”. But I want variety on the menu. Talk to the staff of the boarding house about nutrition in their institution: are there the possibility of an individual menu, dividing food into treatment tables (diets), as in a sanatorium.
Works officially
He does not hide his address, the name of the legal entity, he concludes a transparent contract for the provision of services.
Popular questions and answers
How do I get into a nursing home?
How to get to the state nursing home?
What is the difference between private nursing homes and public ones?
For the state, nursing homes are an image story. Show that people who paid taxes for the good of the country can have a decent old age. Unfortunately, the image has so far managed to improve only in the capital regions and some large cities.
Commercial guesthouses, on the other hand, work to give as much as possible to their guests in one place. Therefore, there are projects with gyms, rehabilitation centers, own territory, sections, training grounds, etc.
– Private nursing homes, earning from the guests, can afford to spend more than the minimum necessary. In expensive boarding houses there will be newer appliances and furniture and more staff, our expert adds.
When can you visit your loved ones in a nursing home?
In the best institutions, communication time is practically not regulated. There may be certain epidemiological restrictions, but in general – at any time of the day. However, taking into account the fact that boarding schools tend to occupy and diversify the day of their guests with various activities, so as not to intrude on the schedule, they often set recommended days and times for visiting. In general, it is important that an elderly person knows that no one will “captivate” him or hold him. At any moment, he can go for a walk (if there are no psycho-neurological deviations), meet with anyone he wants, and the boarding school is just a comfortable place to live, a full-fledged home.
Sources of
- Life expectancy at birth. Rosstat. URL: https://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/progn7.htm
- Federal Law “On the Fundamentals of Servicing Citizens in the Federation”. URL: http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&nd=102170561
- “Family Code of the Federation” dated December 29.12.1995, 223 N 02.07.2021-FZ (as amended on July 87, 8982). Article 838