1. Exploring the Maze of Long Term Care
By Sandy Mabery
Pine Tree Place - Assisted Living, Clarkston, MI
www.pinetreeplacellc.com
Long term care is a very confusing world for most families. It is not an exact science and
each type of long term care and each facility in each category has their own admission
and discharge policies. So the best thing to do is narrow your search using the web, then
make calls and talk to each facility about what type of resident they can care for and then
personally visit the facilities and meet the managers, see and smell the place and try and
get a generally feel of the place by watching how staff interact with residents. Check out
what type of residents already live there and decide if that is a good fit for your family
member. My general rule of thumb is you get more personalized care in a smaller facility
and the more care you need the smaller the facility should be. If your family member is
more independent then the larger facilities are OK too. Obviously, if they have serious
medical needs, that require 24 hr medical supervision by doctors and nurses, then you
are definitely looking at skilled nursing facilities (SNF) or Sniffs for short.
Skilled Care Facility, Convalescent Homes, Nursing Homes
Large institutional facilities that provide room, meals and 24 hour medical care for
elderly residents. Licensed by the State of Michigan and funded by Medicaid and
Medicare.
Assisted Living Facility
Large facilities that provide room, meals, activities and 24 hour non-medical personal
care for elderly residents. Generally, these facilities house 21 or more residents on two or
more floors and are licensed by the Michigan Department of Human Services as “Home
for Aged" (HFA). Some facilities are unlicensed and therefore must contract all personal
care services through a Home Health Care Agency. These facilities only provide room
and meals and have additional charges for personal care and medication management.
Generally new construction. Private Pay
Assisted Living Home, Large Adult Foster Care Group Home, Personal Care Home
Small residential facilities housing approximately 13-20 residents that provide room,
meals, activities and 24 hour non-medical personal care for elderly residents. Licensed
by the Michigan Department of Human Services as “Large Adult Foster Care Group
Home” (AFC) with a 13-20 bed requirement. Generally remodeled homes but larger ones
sometimes are new construction. All personal care and medication management is
included in the monthly fee. Private Pay
Assisted Living Home, Personal Care Homes, Small Adult Foster Care Group Home
Small residential facilities that provide room, meals, activities and 24 hour non-medical
care for elderly residents. Licensed by the Michigan Department of Human Services
“Small Adult Foster Care Group Home” (AFC) with a 7-12 bed requirement. Almost
exclusively remodeled homes. All personal care and medication management is included
in the monthly fee. Private Pay

2. Assisted Living Home, Personal Care Homes, Adult Foster Care Family Home, Group
Home
Small residential facilities that provide room, meals, activities and 24 hour non-medical
care for elderly residents. Licensed by the Michigan Department of Human Services as
“Adult Foster Care Family Home” (AFC) with 6 or less beds and requirement that
owner/operator live in home. Exclusively remodeled or existing homes. All personal care
and medication management is included in the monthly fee. Private Pay
Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC)
Large institutional facilities that offer independent living apartments, assisted living, and
skilled nursing care at one site. (i.e. Mercy Bellbrook in Rochester Hills and Canterbury-
on-the-Lake in Waterford). These are exclusively new construction. Private Pay
Senior Housing, Independent Living Apartments, Retirement Villages
Generally large apartment complexes catering to the elderly that do not offer any care but
will at times offer limited meals and some activities. Some have been remodeled to
provide an attached community room for the limited meals and activities. These will
sometimes also advertise themselves as Assisted Living. Private Pay
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Here are a couple of good web sites to use for searching.
For all Home for the Aged and Adult Foster Care homes you can go to the following site
and search by county city, zip and check to see if they have had any licensing issues or
violations. It will tell you what type of clients they take (you will be looking for those
that say AGED or ALZ for Alzheimer's Disease) Some small group homes will mix ALZ
with mentally handicapped or physically handicapped individuals. Others will be specific
to the elderly and some are specific to just females or males, so you need to ask about
these issues.
http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/brs_afc/sr_afc.asp
Here are some other good sites:
http://www.assistedlivinginfo.com/Michigan/
http://www.chooseassistedliving.org/
http://www.miassistedliving.org/consider.html
http://michcal.com/
These sites are good for all types of long term care and hospice care

3. www.alternativesforseniors.com
http://www.servingseniors.net/
www.aplaceformom.com
MI Choice Medicaid Waiver Program
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dhs/MI_Choice_Services_flyer_297394_7.pdf
http://www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,1607,7-132-2943_4857_5045-16263--,00.html
Area Agency on Aging (Agent for MI Choice and a good overall resource)
http://www.aaa1b.com/
Tina Abbate Marzolf, CEO
Kathleen Kueppers, Program Director
29100 Northwestern Highway, Suite 400
Southfield, Michigan 48034
Tele: 248-357-2255
Fax: 248-648-9691