Residents of assisted living communities across the nation are largely very happy with the services the receive and the quality of life they achieve by living within those community settings, according to a new report.
This is the finding of an independent survey commissioned this month by the Assisted Living Federation of America and conducted by two independent third-party pollsters.
More than 90% of 500 residents surveyed reported they feel satisfied, safe and personally independent in their communities, reporting high marks for those who work in the communities as well.
“What really matters to us is what our residents think, so we went out and asked them,” says ALFA President and CEO Richard Grimes. “And what we found confirmed what we already knew: Assisted living is absolutely the best, safest and most satisfying senior living option for seniors who cherish their independence but just need some extra help.”
Among the survey results, 94% of assisted living residents say they are satisfied with their overall quality of life in their assisted living community, while 91% say they are safer living in an assisted living community than they would be on their own.
Recent findings have indicated residents care more about staff than any other aspect of senior living. The vast majority of residents surveyed reported they are confident in the abilities and caring nature of those working in their communities.
According to the responses, 87% of the residents say the workers in their community are well trained and well qualified to do their jobs, while 86% of the residents say the workers in their communities “care about me as a person.”
The findings counter those of a forthcoming report from PBS Frontline titled “Life and Death in Assisted Living,” slated to air on July 30; which has been previewed to raise questions about the safety of assisted living communities.
“The true story of assisted living won’t be found in sensational news reports,” Grimes says. “It’s found in the everyday stories of our residents, and the safe, happy and active lives they lead every single day.”
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
Companies featured in this article:
Join the Conversation (6)
see all
This is a professional community. Please use discretion when posting a comment.
Comments are closed.
Thanks for sharing this assisted living resident feedback! Another way to assess assisted living satisfaction is online consumer reviews — from residents, their families, senior care experts, and prospective clients. Across the tens of thousands of assisted living reviews on Caring.com (from all of these sources I've mentioned — and not including employees or paid representatives of the listed providers), 80% are positive, with a rating of four or five stars. These reviews give numerous specific examples of how the communities and their staff are meeting or exceeding service expectations, as do the Caring Champion stories about assisted living caregivers across the country: http://www.caring.com/caring-champions
Nice article Elizabeth!
The findings in this study align with the feedback we have received on SeniorHomes.com from residents, their families and local experts. In addition, our proprietary rating system, which assigns a quality rating to indicate the overall quality of a senior living community based on feedback from local experts, state inspection data, and consumer reviews, shows that the majority of senior living communities are well operated. The vast majority of residents and their families are happy, and the SeniorHomes Rating shows that the majority of senior living communities are well operated, providing a safe, healthy environment for their residents.
Digging into our reviews, ninety percent of the reviews of senior living communities that we receive are positive (with a 4 or 5 star overall rating.) Most of our consumer reviews are from residents and their families (as opposed to visitors). Our data shows that the quality of the staff is the factor that is most highly correlated with the overall score the community gets.
Looking into the SeniorHomes Ratings, only 10% of the communities with a rating on SeniorHomes.com have a rating below 5 on a scale of 1-10. We consider scores below 5 to indicate a community that consumers should avoid. Our ratings align well with the state inspection data—state inspection data shows that 83% of senior living communities in the states of Arizona, Oregon and Washington have 3 state inspection infractions or less, an acceptable infraction count.
We know that there are a handful of bad operators out there, but our data aligns with yours to show that most communities are serving their residents well.
You can learn more about the SeniorHomes Rating and our Top Rated communities here: http://www.seniorhomes.com/p/2013-best-senior-liv…
I think the most important aspect is care, security, comfort and meaningful activities that the residents of the facilities receive from the staff that's why the result is positive. It's always something to be considered when choosing an assisted living community for your loved one. They feel satisfied, safe and personally independent in their communities, reporting high marks for those who work in the communities as well.
Hmm…I wonder if ALFA is biased at all?
At National Research Corporation, we collect resident, family and employee satisfaction metrics throughout the healthcare continuum. In assisted living communities over the past 18 months we have collected surveys from over 53,000 residents living in an assisted living community and the results are similar to the findings mentioned in the above article with 91% rating their overall satisfaction of their assisted living community as "excellent" or "good".
This is great information to hear and very reassuring for families. The findings are also in line with the reviews of senior care communities we see on http://www.SeniorAdvisor.com
Less than 5% have an average rating below 3, and 72% score 4 or 5. It is wonderful to see the stories of security, joy, and relief residents and their families share in their reviews of assisted living and other types of care communities. The feedback provided through online reviews is one of the many helpful tools available to families as they begin their search for senior care, and we encourage families and community owners to leverage our reviews as a way to facilitate discussion and improvement in their communities.