Are you looking for a nursing home or other long-term care facility for a loved one? Follow these important tips before making a decision:
- Don't just sign up for an official tour. Walk around and see the place for yourself.
- If you're on the official tour ask to see other floors, otherwise you may only be shown the cleanest floor with the low maintenance patients.
- Ask what the resident mix is.
- Ask who your loved one may have for a roommate. Find out if it is possible that they could be placed with a resident with aggressive behaviour?
- Hang out in the lobby and see what kind of people surface. A lot of the time the physically fit, younger people will hang out there because they don't have anywhere else to go.
- Visit the homes at meal time. This will allow you to see what the staffing ratio is and the resident mix for yourself.
- Also see what it's like after meal time. How are the residents returned back to their rooms? Is there enough staff to care for them?
- If possible, go early in the morning to see if the residents are dressed for breakfast. If not, there likely isn't enough staff to care for them all.
- Talk to the staff and get a sense of whether they feel overworked. Ask them how they like working there. Are they really busy? Do they like their coworkers?
