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Senior Living: Levels of Care

Independent Living
Personal Care
Assisted Living
Nursing Home / Skilled Nursing Facility
Rehabilitation
Continuing Care Retirement Community, or CCRC

Independent Living

Independent living communities, also called retirement communities, can accommodate independent seniors with few medical problems who are relatively self-sufficient. Many have age restrictions, for example, at Vincentian Villa residents must be ages 60 and older. Many of these communities offer services and resources to make daily tasks easier and homes are designed to provide comfort, security and safety for seniors.. For example, Vincentian Villa provides local transportation, social activities, maintenance, and more. Additional services, such as housekeeping, are available for a fee. If personal or medical care becomes necessary, residents in independent living for seniors are permitted to bring in outside services of their choice.

Independent Living is ideal for seniors who:

are healthy and able to care for themselves
desire the security of a seniors-only community
no longer want to maintain a house
can communicate with doctors and caregivers by themselves, or with the help of family or friends, but without the help of trained, onsite staff
have enough money to pay for the kind of home they are looking for

Because Vincentian Villa is part of a CCRC, or continuing care retirement community, through Vincentian Home, residents have the option to access personal care services or nursing home care if needed. CCRC residents can move back and forth between various facilities in the same general location, as their needs for care change over time. Read more about CCRCs below.

Vincentian Villa - North Hills / McCandless

Assisted Living or Personal Care

Before summer 2010, in the state of Pennsylvania, assisted living and personal care were terms that could be used interchangeably. New laws effective in July 2010 are changing the regulations and associated licensure related to personal care and assisted living. Personal care regulations and licensure will remain the same, while a new level of care called assisted living is added. Assisted living offers a wider array of medical services than personal care. The addition of this new and distinct assisted living level of care means that personal care facilities must call themselves personal care and assisted living facilities must call themselves assisted living. These name changes will be complete by January 2010.

Vincentian Collaborative System operates two personal care facilities. Personal care provides 24-hour supervision in a pleasant residential setting for seniors who require help with the activities of daily living and/or medication supervision, yet who wish to remain as independent as possible. Residents receive meals, assistance as needed, and are offered a variety of social activities to help promote a stimulating and rewarding lifestyle. If a senior needs a number of services, a personal care facility may become a more economical alternative to home care services.

Personal care is well suited for seniors who:

can no longer manage to live on their own, but don’t require medical care
need help with some activities of daily living, such as: bathing, dressing, toileting, grooming, cooking/eating, getting around, housekeeping

Vincentian Personal Care - North Hills / McCandless
Marian Manor Personal Care - South Hills / Green Tree

Nursing Home / Skilled Nursing Facility

Skilled nursing facilities, also known as nursing homes, may be independent or part of a senior continuing care community, such as Vincentian Home. 24-hour medical care is available, in addition to custodial care. Residents may be there temporarily for a period of rehabilitation, or may be there for long-term care. State regulations define the services that skilled nursing facilities can provide.

Skilled care is professionally supervised nursing care and other related medical and health services. Such care is provided for people who are assessed as needing 24-hour nursing care, which can only be met in a long term care facility on an inpatient basis, and who need the care because of illness, disease, or injury.

Nursing homes also often provide intermediate care, or non-skilled care (also called custodial care). Intermediate care is health-related care that requires services under a plan of care and supervised licensed personnel, but does not require hospital or skilled care on a regular basis. It includes help with the activities of daily living, such as personal hygiene, dressing, bathing, and eating. Intermediate care also provides medication administration, skin care, and restorative nursing programs.

Residents of nursing homes generally have high care needs and complex medical conditions that require routine skilled nursing services. Due to the constant care needs of its residents, nursing homes are required by federal law to have a licensed nurse on duty 24 hours a day. A licensed physician supervises each patient’s care. Residents typically share a room and are served meals in a central dining area. The goal of care in a nursing home is to help individuals meet their daily physical, medical, social, and psychological needs.

A skilled nursing facility is for an individual who meets one or more of the following criteria:

Cannot take care of themselves because of physical, emotional, or mental problems
Can no longer care for their own personal needs, such as eating, bathing, using the toilet, moving around, or taking medications (custodial care)
Requires more care than can be provided by their caregiver, and cannot live alone
Might wander away if unsupervised
Has extensive medical needs requiring daily attention or monitoring by a registered nurse supervised by an doctor
Is going to be discharged from the hospital and requires temporary skilled nursing care or rehabilitation before returning home or to a residential facility
Has been recommended for a nursing home by a physician

Marian Manor - South Hills / Green Tree
Vincentian de Marillac - City of Pittsburgh / Stanton Heights
Vincentian Home - North Hills / McCandless
Vincentian Regency - North Hills / Allison Park

Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation may include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and other specialized treatments.

The skilled nursing facilities of VCS provide rehabilitation services for short-term residents recovering from illness or injury, as well as for their long-term residents to ensure they remain as active as possible and desired.

Marian Manor - South Hills / Green Tree
Vincentian de Marillac - City of Pittsburgh / Stanton Heights
Vincentian Home - North Hills / McCandless
Vincentian Regency - North Hills / Allison Park

Vincentian Collaborative System also offers outpatient rehabilitation services to adults of all ages.

Vincentian Rehabilitation Services - North Hills / McCandless

Continuing Care Retirement Community, or CCRC

The goal of these communities whether “lifecare” or “continuing care” is to allow residents to “age in place.” They allow residents to live independently as long as possible, and provide for nursing assistance if or when it is needed. If illness or injury occurs, the necessary health care services required are available, ideally within the community. The term “continuum of care” refers to all of the services that people need as they age being available through one service provider or on one campus. The only caveat to this is that acute care hospitalization often is not available at a CCRC.

Most CCRCs provide three separate levels of care: independent living units, assisted living or personal care, and skilled nursing care. In some cases individuals move progressively through these levels of care so that they need little care in the beginning and progressively require a greater amount of care. In other cases, residents require additional care for a period of time and then return to independent living, assisted living or personal care.

Under almost all circumstances, an individual must be healthy and reasonably independent to be admitted to a CCRC.

Vincentian Home - North Hills / McCandless
Vincentian Personal Care
Vincentian Villa

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