Columbia Aged Care

Choosing the right nursing home can be difficult and overwhelming for many carers. You want to ensure that the nursing home you choose will provide the best care for your loved one. However, with so many nursing homes available, how do you compare them to ensure you make the right choice?

The first step to finding the right nursing home is to start searching for homes in your area. Once you have a list of potential nursing homes you should then visit each home to assess them.

The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing has put together a Nursing Home checklist that will help you to compare each nursing home by asking the right questions.

Some of the questions on the Nursing home checklist are:

Staff

• What was the attitude of the staff assisting you?
• What training do the care staff have?
• How many staff members provide overnight care?
• What type of care or services cannot be provided?

Rooms

• Are single rooms available or will your loved one have to share?
• What arrangements are there to ensure privacy for residents?
• What furnishings and personal items can your loved one bring and what is supplied?

Food

• What are the meal arrangements?
• Is there easy access to well-maintained outdoor areas?

Other

• How can family and friends be involved in your loved one’s care?
• What transport is accessible for visiting shops and family?
• Can the nursing home meet your loved one’s medical and special needs?
• Do you or your loved one understand the costs associated with care?

You can also prepare your own specific questions to add to the checklist and remember to take a new checklist to every nursing home you visit.

Feel free to conduct second or third visits to each nursing home to ensure you make the right choice.

Hopefully with a little bit of preparation and by asking the right questions you can find the best nursing home for your loved one.

Read the full checklist here.

Aged Care Connect have provided helpful guidelines to aid you in the difficult and stressful search of finding an aged care facility for a parent, spouse or friend. There are a few rules that you should follow to make the process simpler.

Location
No single factor is more important to quality of care and quality of life of a resident than visits by family members.  Visits can be the high point of the day or week for the resident. So, make it as easy as possible for family members and friends to visit.

Get references
Ask the facility to provide the names of family members of residents so you can ask them about the care provided in the facility and the staff's responsiveness when the resident or relatives raise concerns.

Talk to the nursing home administrator or nursing staff
Ask staff how care plans are developed for residents and how they respond to concerns expressed by family members. 

Tour the facilityTry not to be impressed by a fancy lobby or depressed by an older, more rundown facility. What matters most is the quality of care and the interactions between staff and residents. See what you pick up about how well residents are attended to and whether they are treated with respect. Investigate the quality of the food service. Eating is both a necessity and a pleasure that continues even when we're unable to enjoy much else.

How do families choose between aged care homes?
Most families begin the process of finding the right aged care home after they have the copy of the aged care assessment from the ACAT. The selection of the aged care home is important and will have a major impact upon your relative and upon the families peace of mind.

Final word of warning - Stories from well meaning friends and neighbours
Be wary of stories from friends and neighbours who have good intentions, but may not  fully understand the current status of the aged care home.