Missouri Memory Care Facilities

Missouri is a state that represents the Midwest very well. It may not have the stellar, prestigious representation of the New England senior living, nor the year-round sun and warm climate of parts of the west coast and south. Still, there are so many benefits for seniors in the Midwest. Memory care communities in Missouri are no different in this aspect.

The best dementia care homes in Missouri feature excellent service with outstanding skilled nursing that are friendly and professionally at all times. The state's tempo is calmer and more laidback that suits seniors well, making the experience at the top-rated Missouri Alzheimer's' care homes and dementia care facilities excellent.

Cost of Memory Care Facilities in Missouri

The cost for a room in a typical Missouri Alzheimer's care home averages $154 per day, or a little more than $4,600 per month. The national average is $160 per day, making Missouri memory care rank a little under the national average.

Therefore, inexpensive dementia care facilities in Missouri are abundant and available in all parts of the state. The lowest ten percent of the state's Alzheimer's care homes only cost under $2,800 per month, while the highest ten percent average a little over $4,600 per month. The gap between the most expensive and inexpensive is not significant, making just about every type of dementia care home in Missouri affordable for everyone.

Memory care communities in Missouri exist in different living environments. Some wards or units are extensions of bigger assisted living or nursing homes, while others only deal with Alzheimer's and dementia patients. There are pros and cons to each situation, depending on the severity of the disease, yet there is also really no "wrong" choice. It does depend on the type of service you desire for a loved one (more hands-on vs. group treatment), security features of the building, amenities, and proximity to your own home or other family members (so they can also hopefully visit often).

According to the latest census, Missouri has just over 6 million residents. The largest concentration exists in Kansas City, where nearly 500,000 people call it home, including many seniors. Quality Missouri dementia care homes exist in Kansas City, both affordable and more luxurious.

St. Louis is the second busiest city in the state and offers a massive variety of promising Alzheimer's care options. The city of 320,000 plus residents provides quality healthcare and access to top medical clinics.

Furthermore, the cities of Springfield, Independence, Columbia, and Lee's Summit are sized perfectly and feature a good selection of top dementia care facilities. St. Joseph and O'Fallon are also excellent communities with many choices for dementia care.

Missouri Memory Care Home Amenities

Missouri dementia care homes feature all the standard amenities plus many luxury ones. The communities are designed to provide a safe and comfortable living environment. Security pendants are offered for Alzheimer's residents, along with more hands-on services. Meals are served daily and provide nutritional balance. Housekeeping and maintenance keep the facilities clean, well-organized, and safe.

Alzheimer's care facilities in Missouri offer top-tier private or shared accommodations. They feature spacious living spaces and an accessible bathroom with your loved one's comfort and safety in mind. They also have an easy-to-navigate and accessible floor plan, making walking around comfortable with or without mobility aids. These communities also have ample recreational spaces for socializing with other residents and passing the time at their own leisure.

Missouri memory care homes provide excellent 24-hour care and supervision services, ensuring that they can have the assistance they need for their daily living activities. These facilities also offer top-notch nursing services, treatment administration, medication storage, and medicine distribution to ensure that each person receives the right dosage of the right medicine at the appropriate times. These facilities also make it a point to conduct thorough semi-annual health assessments and during times when there are changes in a resident's condition to check, reassess, and create a new care plan when necessary.

Aside from providing at least three tasty and nutritious meals a day, Missouri memory care homes can cater to doctor-prescribed personalized diets while making sure that they are still appetizing to residents. A registered nutritionist or dietitian reviews these meal plans quarterly to give residents various flavors and aromas that they can experience with their food.

Every memory care facility in Missouri is staffed with experienced and well-trained professionals. A licensed administrator manages the community, keeps the staff to resident ratio at 1:15, and ensures that the facilities are kept in pristine condition, and the services maintain up to par. Licensed nurses and direct care staff provide the best memory care and treat each resident with respect and dignity. Physicians supervise resident care plans and treatment administration, ensuring that residents receive some of the best care available today.

Missouri Memory Care Facilities vs. Assisted Living Communities

There are a lot of residential care facilities available today compared to the last decade or so. But two options that may look appealing for your family member with dementia are assisted living homes and memory care homes in Missouri.

Both residential care facilities offer spacious rooms, three nutritious meals, and 24/7 support services. However, the main differences are in the level and kind of care they can provide to a resident.

More comparable to apartments, assisted living homes in the state of Missouri cater to elders or people with disabilities with more mobility and want more independence. These residents can live in a private or shared living space and have access to support services to assist them with daily living activities that they find challenging. This residential care type is more appropriate for people whose Alzheimer's are still in the early to early-moderate stages. A Missouri assisted living facility may have a special memory care unit to cater to the needs of people with Alzheimer's and dementia during its more advanced stages, but not every assisted living home has this.

On the other hand, Missouri dementia care homes specifically cater to Alzheimer's and dementia patients' needs. These facilities have qualified staff members to provide high-quality care for a resident regardless of the disease's stage. Their staff members are also trained in personal care, directed care, supervisory care, behavioral services, memory care-specific treatments, and individual and group therapy supervision.

Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services are the regulatory bodies that licenses and monitors memory care communities in Missouri. They also conduct announced and surprise checks on memory care facilities to ensure that they are providing 24-hour care and supervision, nursing services, daily living assistance, recreational activities, medication administration, storage, and distribution, three nourishing meals a day, and a safe and secure environment for its residents.

Understanding Dementia

Dementia is a broad term that pertains to the loss of memory, language, and thinking abilities. The primary culprit is the abnormal change in a person's brain caused by a disease or similar. It is also possible to have mixed dementia or a dementia with more than one cause. The top causes of dementia include Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease. But among these causes, Alzheimer's disease is by far the most common cause of dementia in the United States.

Alzheimer's is reported to be the cause of well over 60 to 80% of dementia cases in the country. Alzheimer's is not just about forgetting facts, figures, and details. Alzheimer's is a brain disease that gets exponentially worse to the point that it completely takes away a person's cognitive function and mobility. Although most Alzheimer's cases in the country were diagnosed at 65 years old or older, there is still a large portion of younger people diagnosed before this age.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, there are about 5.8 million Alzheimer's cases in the US and 200,000 of which are early-onset Alzheimer's or those people who were diagnosed at a younger age. It is also interesting to note that there are more female Alzheimer's cases than males. But this little factoid can be attributed to the higher longevity of women than men rather than the effect of the disease itself. If Alzheimer's is this prevalent across the states and does not have any regard for gender and age, is there a cure?

Unfortunately, researchers have yet to find a cure for Alzheimer's. That is why more people opt to seek care from family members or care professionals when the disease worsens.

Although there are still more people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia independently, the number of residents with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia that memory care home in Missouri in other states report continues to increase steadily. This change of heart can be attributed to the enhancement of the care that facilities provide, the availability of select memory care units, and the overall improvement of a care community's image. But when is the right time to transition to a memory care community?

When to Move to a Missouri Dementia Care Community

As Alzheimer's and dementia do not have a fixed age of onset nor a set rate of progression, there is no actual age or period that dictates that it's the time to move a loved one to a memory care home in Missouri. However, geriatricians suggest that you consider the following things.

• Behavioral changes
• Their safety and security
• Changes in their health status
• Stage of the disease
• Caregiver's health and well-being.

Some of the questions that may help you further reassess the issue include:

• Are you, as the primary caregiver, able to maintain your cool despite the sudden behavioral changes that a loved one exhibits?
• Are you able to be patient when a loved one lashes out due to the frustration of forgetting how small tasks work or being incapable of doing things that they used to do regularly?
• Are you able to assist them with personal care and hygiene when they forget how to do these as well?
• Are you still able to leave a loved one for a short period of time without fear that they might get lost in an unknown place because they got confused and disoriented along the way?
• Can you confidently look after your loved one to ensure that they eat, drink, and take their medication regularly to not let their health decline?
• Are you prepared to handle the incontinence and immobility that the latter stages of Alzheimer's and dementia can bring?
• Are you able to give consistent high-level care when a loved one reaches a point in the disease that they are no longer able even to feed themselves?
• Can you confirm that you are still able to complete other duties and responsibilities outside of caregiving?
• Do you still maintain contact with other family members and friends and not feel left out of the loop?
• Do you still take the time to look out for your physical, emotional, and mental well-being?
• Are you still confident that you can give the best care for your loved one in the long-term?

It is ideal to reflect upon these questions periodically because as a progressive disease, Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia gradually gets worse as time passes. If you can no longer confidently say 'yes' and are just taking more time to think of ways not to say 'no,' then maybe it is time to look for a Missouri memory care facility for your loved one.

Admission to a Missouri Memory Care Facility

Although the Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services does not explicitly say that a Missouri memory care community must state their admission requirements, the regulating body does require the facility to state the services they are able and unable to provide. This precaution to ensure that residents are properly cared for also restricts resident admissions in Missouri's memory care homes.

Missouri residents who are over 65 years old or have a diagnosed disability are eligible for admission in a memory care home. Mobile or bedridden individuals who are already receiving hospice care and need high-level nursing care may also be admitted.

However, a bedridden person who requires constant care may not be admitted in a memory care community if they are not already a recipient of hospice care from a medical professional. Similarly, those who require regular medical care from licensed medical staff or those who need more than one person to provide daily living assistance may also be barred from entry. Lastly, people who need to be continuously restrained (physically or chemically) or those who can harm themselves or other residents may not be admitted.

Despite these requirements, some Missouri memory care communities may offer special considerations depending on your loved one's case. That is why you should schedule a visit to a care facility before removing it from your prospect list.

Choosing the Right Missouri Dementia Care Facility

Finding a memory care home in Missouri for your family member with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia is a personal journey. However, you may want to start by compiling a list of the things that your loved ones want and what their care needs. Compile this list and search through the Internet or business listings. Then, you can compare your list to the services that these communities have to offer. Once you have narrowed down your choices, you can schedule a tour of the facility and a meeting with the management and the staff members who are in-charge of resident care. During the meeting, you may want to ask them questions like these.

• Are you allowed to participate in the care planning?
• How involved should you be, and are allowed to be in the care process?
• How are you informed of changes in health status and care needs?
• Who can you contact for updates and inquiries?
• Does the facility have the services and amenities that your loved one needs?
• When do licensed medical professionals visit the community?
• How many staff members are specifically trained for memory care?
• What does the process look like when a resident needs to visit the hospital?
• What is the staff to resident ratio?
• Are the living areas and bathrooms well-appointed and accessible?
• Can new residents bring personal things?
• Is the building easy to navigate and accessible to people with disabilities?
• How are the indoor and outdoor spaces?
• What are the usual recreational activities for residents?
• What are the policies and processes for visits?
• How are meals planned, and can they cater to specific dietary needs?
• What are the discharge policies and procedures?
• Are continuing care and aging in place available?

Support to Afford Admission to a Missouri Dementia Care Community

Despite being a little under the national average, relocating a loved one in a Missouri memory care home can strain your finances. That is why it is a good thing that there are state and non-state programs to help you care for a loved one with Alzheimer's or other dementia types.

• Older Americans Act Eligibility
  • Missouri residents
  • At least 60 years old
  • No income limits, but there may be a special priority to low-income seniors
• Supplemental Nursing Care Eligibility
  • Missouri resident
  • Must have a disability or higher care need certified by the Department of Health and Human Services
  • Must meet Medicaid income restrictions
• Aged and Disabled Waiver Eligibility
  • Missouri residents
  • At least 63 years old
  • Must have disabilities requiring a higher level of care
  • Medicaid-eligible

You may also look into reverse mortgages, long-term care insurance, life insurance, and veterans benefits as an additional means of financial support and the like.