Assisted Living Facilities Offer Alternative to Nursing Homes Assisted Living Facilities Offer Alternative to Nursing Homes Following is an interview with Stephen Golant, professor of geography, who has been studying old age since 1972 and is writing a book on assisted living facilities for older adults. You're currently writing a book exploring the role assisted living facilities have on the well-being of older persons. There are many aspects that are attractive but one of them is that they are increasingly providing care for physically and mentally frail older persons but in an environment that more closely resembles a hotel or an inn as opposed to a hospital or nursing home.
Residents have their own rooms or their own little suites.
They're treated less like patients and more like residents. There's also the issue of regulation. Currently these facilities aren't well regulated compared to nursing homes. On the one hand the American public wants an unregulated, private-sector kind of economy. On the other hand, the public demands protections.