Representing over500 licensed facilities.

Long Term Care represents a variety of services that include medical and non-medical care to people who have a chronic illness or disability. Long-term care helps meet health or personal needs. Most long-term care is to assist people with support services such as activities of daily living like dressing, bathing, and toileting. Long-term care can be provided at home, in the community, in an assisted living facility or in a nursing home. It is important to remember that you may need long-term care at any age.

Independent Living is a living arrangement that maximizes independence and self-determination, especially of disabled persons living in a community instead of in a medical facility.

This movement asserts that people with disabilities should have the same civil rights and life choices as people without disabilities. In Independent Living, two or three meals are included along with transportation, weekly housekeeping and recreational activities.

Adult Family Care Homes provide full-time, family-type living in a private home for up to five elderly persons or adults with a disability who are not related to the owner. The owner lives in the same house as the residents. The basic services include, but are not limited to: housing and nutritional meals; help with the activities of daily living, like bathing, dressing, eating, walking, physical transfer, giving medications or helping residents give themselves medications; supervision of residents; arrange for health care services; provide or arrange for transportation to health care services; health monitoring; and social activities. Adult family care homes are licensed and surveyed by the State of Florida.

Assisted Living Facilities (ALF) provide full-time living arrangements in the least restrictive and most home-like setting. The basic services include, but are not limited to: housing and nutritional meals; help with the activities of daily living, like bathing, dressing, eating, walking, physical transfer, giving medications or helping residents give themselves medications; arrange for health care services; provide or arrange for transportation to health care services; health monitoring; respite care; and social activities. Assisted living facilities are licensed and surveyed by the State of Florida.

Alternative community housing arrangements include retirement communities, continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), and senior-oriented apartment complexes. Community-based services include Meals-on-Wheels, congregate meal sites, homemaker services, and simple friendly visits.

Special accommodations are made for residents with Alzheimer’s, dementia, or related diseases. Such accommodations include separate living areas and specific daily activities for the residents. The facility has staff trained in the care of patients with Alzheimer’s, dementia or related diseases.

A nursing home is an entity that provides skilled nursing care and rehabilitation services to people with illnesses, injuries or functional disabilities. Most facilities serve the elderly. However, some facilities provide services to younger individuals with special needs such as the developmentally disabled, mentally ill, and those requiring drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Nursing homes are generally stand alone facilities, but some are operated within a hospital or retirement community.

The level of care provided by nursing homes has increased significantly over the past decade. Many homes now provide much of the nursing care that was previously provided in a hospital setting. As a result, most nursing homes now focus their attention on rehabilitation, so that their clients can return to their own homes or an assisted living facility as soon as possible. Some of the services a nursing home may provide include:

• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy
• Speech therapy
• Respiratory therapy