Review: The significance of 81 cents
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 9, 2013
Assisted living facilities came into being in the 1980s as a less restrictive alternative to nursing homes. Unlike nursing homes, which must meet federal standards, assisted living facilities are regulated by the states, which has resulted in a patchwork of regulations and haphazard levels of care. That was dramatically demonstrated in this compelling Kindle Single, which focused on an Alzheimer's patient named Joan Boice, who was institutionalized at an assisted living facility in California. For me, an aging baby boomer with a family history of Alzheimer's, the abysmal lack of care that Mrs. Boice received was shocking and scary. Had her experience been an isolated tragedy, or was it indicative of serious problems in the assisted living industry? That's the issue that co-authors A.C. Thompson and Jonathan Jones examined in "Life and Death in Assisted Living."It's a very grim exposé of a relatively new industry that's been largely under the radar until recently, but with an army of baby boomers approaching the time when institutionalized care becomes necessary, it's clear that dramatic changes have to be made in the operation of assisted living facilities.