Recreating Home in a Long-Term Care Facility

With aging often comes a greater need for long-term care services and supports. As care needs increase, many people transition from receiving help at home to living in assisted living communities or nursing homes. While these settings can provide essential care, the move can also bring emotional challenges. Loss of independence, separation from familiar surroundings, and health decline can all contribute to depression.

Depression remains a significant concern in long-term care settings. Research continues to show that it is both common and frequently underdiagnosed. Studies published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Mental Health indicate that roughly 20 to 40 percent of nursing home residents experience clinically significant depression, though some studies report even higher rates when including mild or untreated symptoms.

Depression Can Be Common in Long-Term Care Settings

Depression in long-term care facilities rarely occurs in isolation. It is often linked with other age-related conditions, including:

• Chronic pain
• Anxiety disorders
• Cognitive decline, including dementia
• Reduced mobility and loss of independence

These overlapping issues can significantly impact quality of life. Residents with untreated depression are more likely to experience:

• Greater functional impairment
• Increased health care utilization and costs
• Slower recovery from illness
• Higher risk of mortality

Despite this, depression is still too often overlooked.

Seventy-six percent of long-term stay residents reported that the interior of their rooms or facilities had depression reducing qualities. While long-term care can be seen as a daunting possibility, there are things you can do to make sure your stay is as comfortable and homey as possible. By optimizing your space, decor, and lighting and placing soothing household items in the room, you can make your long-term care stay as peaceful and comfortable as possible.

Making Space to Feel at Home

A happy and healthy long-term stay begins with feeling comfortable and mobile in one's quarters. Being mobile is the number one way to stay engaged and happy as you age. In order to allow for optimal space, opt for space-saving storage containers to organize your room and maximize your space. With space-saving hangers, stackable drawers, and stackable boxes, you can eliminate floor clutter and ensure the first part of a homely stay; mobility.

Decor and Lighting

The way a room looks can significantly impact if your long-term care has an institutional or homey feeling. Certain colors for walls and even bright colors for important items can give the room a more lively feeling and make the vitals more identifiable, promoting mobility and independence. Nostalgic decors can be soothing and remind residents of a familiar part of their lives and can improve their mood, while natural lighting can give the room a homelier feel.

Homey Items

Using items that remind you of your family and comforting household items such as candles and rugs can add a homey feel to your long-term care.

Having familiar and emotionally meaningful items surrounding a resident in their room is very important. This includes photos of loved ones, mementos of happy times, and even photos of pets bring a positive emotional outlook and improves the quality of their day-to-day life. 

Photographs and photo albums of your family, life accomplishments, and lifelong memories can not only add a homey feeling but improve general mood and mental health.

Picture frames can add a cozy feeling to your room as well. Using different frames of different shapes and sizes with a variety of positive imagery from your life can add a stylish and personal touch as well.  

Make Your Long Term Stay Homey

There is a myriad of things that you can do to change your clinical long-term care stay into a comfortable and homey one. Making sure adequate space is available to move and be independent is step one to starting happy and healthy long-term care.

Adding nostalgic decor, natural lighting, and homey items such as picture frames, candles, and photo albums all add to creating a familiar feeling in the residence. Make sure to consider these ideas to transition your senior care from clinical to homey.

Paying for Extended Care

All long-term health care is expensive and facility care even more so. However, if you or a loved one moves into assisted living, you probably will sell the primary home, and the expenses of that home go away. Yet, there is a cash flow problem that needs to be addressed.

The LTC News Cost of Care Calculator shows you the financial impact of care where you live today and in the decades to come. Long-term care is a cash flow problem and a family problem.

Remember, health insurance, including Medicare (and supplements), will not pay for most of the costs involved in long-term health care. Medicaid will cover care costs for those with little or no income and assets and only in Medicaid-approved facilities. The solution for many people is Long-Term Care Insurance. However, you must have reasonably good health to obtain coverage, so waiting too long is not recommended.

The best time for planning is when you are in your 40s or 50s. Seek a licensed and qualified Long-Term Care Insurance specialist to help you in finding the proper coverage. 

👉 Compare Long-Term Care Insurance Companies and Products

Using LTC Policy

If your older loved one has an LTC policy be sure to use the benefits to pay for the quality care they deserve. Start by using the LTC News Caregiver Directory to search for caregivers and facilities. Get professional help with proicesing the insurance claim. LTC News partners with Amada Senior Care to provide free claim support with no cost or obligation. Their trained experts can walk you through the entire process and help you access benefits quickly and correctly — File a Long-Term Care Insurance Claim. If there is no LTC policy, and your loved one has a life insurance policy, you could sell it for cash now to cover the costs of care.