Long-Term Custodial Care Or Nursing Homes

Years ago, nursing homes were synonymous with long-term custodial care. Nursing homes were for seniors that couldn’t manage on their own. In fact, homes housing health impaired seniors during most of the 20th Century were called nursing homes. They were also called rest homes. Most senior homes were charitable endeavors. Community members seeing that incapacitated seniors required housing would raise funds to support rest homes.

Obligation to the community is reflected in religious institutions. For example, most religions support rest homes. Religions are most active around birth, marriage, and death. In other words, part of ministering to seniors involves the reality that some lose the ability to live independently. And many of these seniors have no place to go. Large congregations of all denominations filled this gap by building senior homes. For example, see the section on Religious Affiliated Nursing Homes below.

Part of the Social Security Act of 1935 included the Old Age Assistance (OAA) program. The OAA, for example, provided funds for seniors to live in nursing homes and rest homes. For this reason, the OAA created the genesis for nursing homes and rest homes.

Nursing Homes

As a result of increased government payments for services needed to help seniors recover from accidents and hospitalizations, residential care facilities upgraded their personnel to qualify for these payments. Most nursing homes became skilled nursing facilities.

Today, nursing homes are facilities that lack skilled professionals. Instead of supporting rehabilitation, they focus on long-term care. Terms for these facilities are long-term residential care facilities and long-term custodial care facilities. They’re still common in rural areas.

Long-Term Custodial Care Facilities Are Not Skilled Nursing Facilities

You need skilled professionals to be classified as a skilled nursing facility. Accordingly, long-term custodial care facilities do not employ this type of staff. You can uncover the type of facility by asking the types of skilled professionals they regularly employ. Specifically, ask if they employ:

Most skilled nursing facilities will need to employ all of the above. Learn about skilled nursing facilities here. For example, if occupational and physical therapists are not regularly available, you’re likely dealing with a long-term custodial care facility or old fashion nursing home.

Religious Affiliated Nursing Homes

Traditional nursing homes are mostly a thing of the past. Today, religiously affiliated nursing facilities are some of the most progressive senior communities. They are progressive in the sense that they deeply understand that seniors’ needs are different and change over time. Their offerings tend to reflect these changes.

How To Find Nursing Homes Near Me

Old form nursing homes aren’t very profitable and have trouble paying competitive salaries to employees. Therefore, they are hard to find. They are still found in rural areas where land and employee salaries are low.

Carmen, for example, used to visit a friend’s aunt in a great nursing home in a rural area. The nursing home purchased a clubhouse from a defunct country club. They converted the clubhouse into a nursing home. It sat on a closed golf course surrounded by beautiful grounds. The facility had some pretty views. The facility is one of the larger employers in the county.

See CarePlanIt’s How To Choose Skilled Nursing Faclites

Finally, please see our section on How To Choose Skilled Nursing Facilities. You can also follow this process to fund long-term residential care facilities of all types.