By Sara Plummer, Staff Writer, Tulsa World, February 22, 2006
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Housing Options
Apartment complexes with naturally aging populations are just like any other apartment complex. Residents are responsible for providing their own meals, medications and the upkeep of their residence. Some complexes are subsidized. Security features and monitoring varies from complex to complex. The health department does not regulate them.
Retirement communities do not pass out medications and have limited monitoring of residents. Some communities have communal dining available, and some have full kitchens in residents' homes or apartments. Upkeep of grounds usually is the management's responsibility, and transportation can be available. They are not licensed by the state health department.
Assisted living centers are licensed and are for people who need occasional care. Medications are distributed, and residents are monitored. Residents have one- or two-room apartments with personal belongings, but meals are provided by the center. Residents usually are allowed the freedom to leave the center with family and friends when they wish.
Nursing homes or health care centers are for residents who need constant care; nurses are on duty 24 hours. There are one or two residents per room. Meals are provided, and the centers are secured, with residents limited to where they can go and when.
Continuing care retirement communities have several of the housing levels on one campus. Residents can move from independent living apartments to assisted living to health care units.
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TULSA - - Bud Langdon did not want to move to Oklahoma Methodist Manor, but his wife, Jewel, thought it would be a good idea after he had heart surgery.
"I didn't decide. My wife did. ... I wasn't ready," said Langdon, who has lived in one of the facility's garden apartments since it was built 19 years ago. "I'm sure glad I did. When she died, it was like a second family."
Oklahoma Methodist Manor, 4134 E. 31st St., is a continuing care retirement community. The campus has independent living homes and apartments, an assisted living center and a nursing home.
Langdon, 87, said he stays busy by leading an exercise class five days a week, volunteering around the manor and staying involved with the manor's activities.
"Every time that bus leaves, I'm on it. Every time they have a program, I'm there," he said. "I love it."
Diane Hambric is chairwoman of the Oklahoma Assisted Living Association, chairwoman of the Governor's Long-term Care Advisory Board and president of Gold Medallion, which operates three assisted living centers, two nursing homes and a retirement community.
Hambric said there are four levels of housing for older residents: apartment complexes, retirement communities, assisted living centers and nursing homes. Continuing care retirement communities like Oklahoma Methodist Manor operate several levels on one campus.
Hambric said educating people about the different types of housing is a hard part of her job.
On Jan. 9, a fire at Pythian Manor Apartments, 6568 E. 21st Place, destroyed 16 units, caused $250,000 in damage and sent five people to the hospital. One of the people later died. Some television stations reported that the apartments were an assisted living center.
Kitty Lull, manager at Pythian Manor, said she could not discuss the fire directly, but she said she still receives phone calls from people who are confused by reports that the complex is an assisted living center.
"It's constant," Lull said. "Just because there's elderly (living here) doesn't make it assisted living."
Pythian Manor is housing for older adults and people with disabilities, Lull said, and the majority of the apartments are subsidized.
"Some come because they can't care for their own houses. They can't afford lawn service, because now they need medications," she said. "We get to a point where we can't take care of the things we used to."
That was the case for Juliette Updike, a resident of Aberdeen Heights Assisted Living Center, 7220 S. Yale Ave., who moved into the center in August.
"I just knew I was ready to make a change in my life. I'd had about nine months of pain. ... I couldn't do things for myself at my home anymore," Updike said. "I knew it would be easier for my family. They wouldn't have to worry about my health conditions and the house conditions."
Greg Guymon is president of the Green Country Healthcare Association.
"We educate people on what nursing homes do," Guymon said. "There are a lot of misconceptions on what nursing homes are. I even had them."
Hambric said nursing homes and assisted living centers are regulated by the state health department, while apartment complexes and retirement communities are not.
"(Nursing home care) is the second most regulated industry in the country. The first is nuclear power plants," she said.
Regulations for assisted living and nursing homes include medication distribution, resident evaluations and sprinkler system requirements, Hambric said, but apartment complexes and retirement communities do not have those requirements.
Nursing homes, assisted living centers, retirement communities and some apartment complexes have activities and programs for residents.
Leaving home and moving into any of the housing levels can be hard for residents and their families, Hambric said.
"When you're faced with these decisions, it can be tough," she said. "There aren't many situations where (the families) don't feel some guilt. ... What they're not realizing is safety factors. What if she falls and no one finds her? You're looking at this wall right now. On the other side is this other life for your family member."
Lull said many residents at Pythian Manor try to stay as independent as they can for as long as they can, and the complex helps them do that with a service coordinator.
"If someone can't drive, she hooks him or her up with the Lift system (Tulsa transit system for people who cannot ride a regular Tulsa Transit bus). If someone has medication needs, she gets them in touch with different programs. She can help them get reduced telephone service," she said. "It's her job to give them a choice of services to keep them independently living."
Lull said the residents take it hard when they have to find a place with more constant care.
"You start taking away someone's independence, they see it as one foot in the grave," she said. "The last thing the elderly want to do is go to a nursing home, because they see that as one step closer to death."
Guymon said that is not always the case.
"In the cycle of life, we die, and sometimes we go to nursing homes to do that," he said. "We do a lot of fun things for people who require that level of care. We go fishing, go to the zoo. ... It's certainly an adjustment for everybody."
Hambric said the move usually is positive.
"You are taking away some freedoms, but what they're gaining (socialization) is huge," she said. "Isolation can be just as debilitating as any illness. ... As you get older, you become more isolated. Friends die, spouses die."
Langdon said living at Oklahoma Methodist Manor helped him cope with the loss of his wife.
"You have a community here of your own," he said. "That's what keeps me going."
Updike said when she moved to the assisted living center, her health got better.
"There are probably a number of reasons I feel better now. My whole lifestyle has changed. ... I have an atmosphere where I'm comfortable," she said. "I have no regrets. You close one door, open another."
Hambric said families should begin looking at housing options early.
"Look before the crisis happens," she said. "Go to an assisted living center, nursing home center. Check them out. Approach the subject before you have to approach the subject."
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