Dick Fleming
Along the road to life many SaddleBrooke residents will need to consider an assisted living community for themselves, a parent, loved one or friend. The Tucson area has 35 assisted living facilities making the selection task difficult—especially when there is an urgent need. My wife Barbara and I surveyed 20 and visited 12 communities in Tucson to bring SaddleBrooke residents our report on the top ones. The communities were selected from information provided earlier this year by the Pima Council on Aging (PCOA). The purpose of our report is to simplify the task of finding the most suitable community, with the costs of various services paramount.
Each community in our report passed our subjective SaddleBrooke ambiance test. Each has interesting meal menus and many activities to support particular resident interests and needs. The variety and quality of these amenities are personal matters and need to be explored first-hand for suitability. We encourage selecting two or three of particular interest for visitations and comparison and help in decision making before a need exists. There are free senior care agents to help you; commissions are paid by the communities. The data in the report should be generally valid for a couple of years as rates are estimated to rise slowly.
There isn’t a national or state rating system for assisted living facilities. Each community we visited is licensed by the state of Arizona with random inspections, called surveys. Survey deficiencies for each facility are in a database that can be searched at Arizona Department of Health Services http://azdhs.gov/licensing/index.php#azcarecheck. The lesson to be gained here is to do your due diligence for each facility you may have interest in. Satisfy yourself with their quality record through the state surveys.
Copies of our report, Top Assisted Living Communities in Tucson, can be obtained at no charge by SaddleBrooke and SaddleBrooke Ranch residents who request it; $25 for non-residents. The report can also be viewed at http://www.sbseniors.org/sb_village.html. For a copy, contact me at [email protected] or 818-6784. Free deliveries of the report will be made via email or mail tubes. When you make a request please provide your full name, address and phone number plus email address if you have one.