CHOOSING A HOME
Choosing a Retirement Home or Nursing Home is a big decision. Planning ahead will help make the decision easier and less stressful. It is beneficial to start looking before you anticipate making the actual choice rather than waiting until the need to move is urgent. This way the research can be more thorough, decisions are not rushed, more places can be visited, and more people can be involved.
A good starting point is to contact the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) in your area. They provide information about services for seniors to receive assistance within their own home. This may be a way to eliminate the need to move to a Long Term Care facility altogether. However, if a decision is made to continue looking into Nursing and Retirement Homes, the next step is to start talking to people about their knowledge of, or experiences with, different homes.
Make a list of key factors that are important to you and your family. Some of the more common elements are, geographical location, culture, religion, diet, and medical services. By phoning or visiting the websites of potential homes and asking about your key concerns, you should be able to develop a short list of potential homes fairly quickly. An initial, longer list of Nursing or Retirement homes can be found through the Ontario Long Term Care Association, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, or the yellow pages.
Tour Vermont Square:
At Vermont Square, we strive to accommodate your tour request as quickly as possible. Please contact the Social Services Coordinator at 416-533-9473 ext. 239 to make an appointment.
The Home will be glad to offer you a tour and a brochure with detailed information regarding the services offered. Take time for a tour, look at the building, talk to the managers, administration and frontline staff, and residents. You will start to get a feel for the environment of the Home.
Application Process:
If you have made the decision to move your loved one into a Long Term Care Home then your first step would be to contact the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) in your area. If your loved one is currently in the hospital, you should then speak with the hospital social worker or discharge planner to assist you with making this contact.
Eligibility for admission into a long term care home is overseen by the CCAC. Once eligibility has been determined then the CCAC coordinates the completion of the application and you select your top three choices of homes. Once your application has been processed by the CCAC, a copy will be sent to each home you have chosen and your name will be added to the home's wait list. Upon a vacancy in the home, CCAC will make the bed offer to the applicant (or their substitute decision maker).
We recognize that an admission into a home may not always be one of choice because of the need for an immediate placement. If you find yourself in this situation, and your decision is that a move will be in the best interest of the resident, we will be glad to assist you with a transfer to another long term care home of your choice once a bed has become available.
Admission Day:
Admission into a long term care home can be a very emotional and exhausting experience. We encourage you to take the time for yourself and your family during this stressful day. In order for the admission experience to run as smoothly as possible, consider these suggestions:
- Bring in your personal items such as furniture and clothing a day in advance.
- Decorating the room prior to admission can assist with decreasing anxiety around moving into a new environment.
- Call the day prior to admission and request an apointment with the bookkeeper to discuss payment arrangements and admission agreement signing.
- If you are comming to us from the community, please bring all your current medications.
- Make contact with the Director of Nursing and the Administrator within the first few days of admission.
- You may call Bell Canada and Rogers Cable for phone and cable services once confirmation of your new room is received
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