Nursing Home Abuse and Nursing Home Neglect Informational Resource
Assisted Living Facilities
General Accounting Office surveys reveal that 93 per cent of assisted living facilities indicated they were able to serve the frail elderly. Twenty-five per cent of the assisted living centers responded that cognitively impaired residents made up 50 per cent of their population. Many assisted living facilities are being attacked because they are in effect operating as a nursing home facility without licensing, but these facilities may or may not be inspected and they are not subject to the same regulations which establish standards for nursing home facilities. In fact, the General Accounting Office concluded in 1999 that it was not possible to determine the precise number of persons living in assisted living facilities in the United States because there is no generally accepted definition of assisted living and no systematic means of counting these facilities. Estimates of the current number of beds in assisted living facilities range from 800,000 to 1.5 million.
Residential Care Facilities
Residential care facilities are variously known as residential care facilities for seniors, adult care homes and boarding homes for seniors, many of which are not licensed.
Residential care facilities do not have licensed personnel. They may not administer medications or medical services. Being that there is no requirement to be licensed, these facilities are not necessarily subject to state inspection and have no staffing requirements.
