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Waters are sometime muddied in what facilities will take what patients, but REAL SNF is a facility much like rehab, where a patient not acute enough to be hospitalized, but not yet well enough to return to status quo is kept while he or she heals and receives just that, skilled nursing care. This often involves people with surgical wounds not yet heals, ostomies they need training in, medication titration by skilled personnel and etc.
An ALF is a facility run as a business where patients apply to stay often in one or two rooms, with meal service, assistance as needed on levels of care (usually I thru IV). It is usually private pay and expect a monthly bill of at least 5,000 all said and done. No skilled RN services unless paid for seperately. Often has transit to appointments and shopping and activities.
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A SNF is for people who need medical care but not at the level of a hospital. For example, a SNF might be able to do an IV for antibiotics, if necessary, or care for patients who are completely dependent on care by others (bedridden, can't feed themselves, etc. for example.) They're also often the same facility where you'd go to rehabilitate after surgery if you needed physical therapy or more assistance than what could be provided at home.

Assisted living is for people who are largely functional on their own but need help with things like showering, dressing, medication dispensing, wheelchairs, and so on. They aren't 100% dependent on someone else to do everything for them. I can't imagine an AL would be the right place for someone who couldn't feed themselves at all, though.

When I first had to place my mother in a nursing home facility, I didn't know what I was doing and put her in a SNF. She didn't need that level of care, though. She was able to put on her clothes if they were put out for her (vision issues), and she could walk with a walker and use the bathroom herself. She needed assistance with showering, but she could feed herself just fine. Her biggest problem was dementia, not medical issues.

Because I didn't get any help from the director of the facility (a family friend of my parents) beyond "she'll always have a place to stay here," I made a terrible mistake putting her there. She required so little hands-on care that she was largely ignored by the staff, but she was terribly isolated and lonely. They also didn't handle her actual medical issues properly at all (severe edema from sitting in a chair all day), and by the time I got her her out of there, water was literally leaking out of her calves making puddles on the floor.

It's important to get your loved one properly assessed for the type of care they need, because a SNF doesn't mean the best care, even if it is the most expensive care. If Medicaid is involved, then I believe you have to go with a SNF, but otherwise, don't do it if it isn't indicated.

I moved my mother to a memory care (similar to assisted living, but with dementia care the primary focus), they cleared up the edema issue within a week, and she happily lived there for the next 2 1/2 years until she died. It also cost nearly $3500 less per month than skilled nursing.
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catcoker, in my area, Skilled Nursing is one step above Assisted Living.

Example, my Mom had a serious fall with head injury and she wasn't able to stand/walk yet her brain said she could. Mom went from some minor memory loss to last stage dementia over night due to that fall. She now needed a large village to take care of her. She needed help with everything, including eating.

In Mom's unit also were residents who had dementia, either self-paying or Medicaid was paying. It was expensive, Dad was paying $12k per month for Mom's care.

My Dad lived in senior living, starting out in Independent Living and eventually into Assisted Living/Memory Care when it was noted he was trying to leave the building late at night, thus his dementia had progressed. Being in his mid 90's, he now needed some help with showering, some dressing, and being pointed in the right direction for whatever was planned for him for the day. His expense was less, self-pay between $5k-$7k per month.

So glad my folks saved big time for a "rainy day" as it was pouring out there.
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