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Retirement Living Made Easy

Nursing Home vs. Assisted Living – What’s The Difference?

People often use the term “nursing home” to mean any place where elderly people live, but that’s not an accurate description. This article will explain these terms more thoroughly.

A nursing home is a medical facility where elderly people who need the availability of 24-hour care live. The facility offers full-time access to trained medical professionals, like registered nurses, as well as access to all manner of professional services, like lawyers and clothes cleaning. A nursing home will provide all the help someone needs day to day, including meals, housekeeping, transportation, and more.

Assisted living is a situation where seniors have their own apartment (or similar living space) and can use professional services (like laundry, meals, transportation, etc.) but do not require the care level of a nursing home.

Within an assisted living facility there is more self-sufficiency and less medical support than is available at a nursing home.

Typical nursing home residents are 85 and over and often utilize Medicaid or some sort of government assistance program.

In short, a nursing home is more like a hospital and an assisted living is more like living in an apartment but with help.