Jane was a 93 year old lady who lived independently in her own home in Lake Oswego for 40+ years. She developed pneumonia in January which led to weakness and several falls. Her neighbors worried about her living alone but couldn’t convince her she should seek assistance. She was proud of her independence and didn’t want strangers in her home and definitely didn’t want to move to assisted living. A major fall and trip to the hospital convinced her neighbors something needed to be done. In addition, the hospital wanted to discharge her the next day and wouldn’t let her go home. The hospital gave the neighbors our name and phone number so they called us to ask for help finding her assistance.
We listened to the wonderful story of Jane’s life and her recent health problems. We asked a lot of questions about what Jane needed for her care and determined an Adult Foster Home would be a good option for her.
Adult Foster Homes are private residences in which the proprietor is licensed by the state to have a maximum of five seniors live in the home. Each house has a private room and at least a half bath. 
Adult Foster Homes are very experienced at caring for seniors and have experience with almost everything. They’re more like home, residents are treated like family and the ratio of caregivers to residents is really good—residents get a lot of attention. There are over one thousand adult foster homes in the Portland metropolitan area. We help narrow down the options. In addition we look at county and state records to see if there are substantiated complaints about the homes or other red flags that indicate it’s not an appropriate place for our clients.
After our meeting with Jane’s neighbors we called adult foster homes in the area in which she wanted to live and found some vacancies in places that were able to provide the specific care she needed. We took the neighbors to several homes to see what they were like and to meet the owners and caregivers. We helped ask questions and point out things that were important to see (such as State certificates of discrepancy free surveys). We found the perfect home for her in Lake Oswego. Jane has been there for several months and is doing really well. Her neighbors visit her frequently and she is proud to show them the garden she is helping to plant in the Adult Foster Home’s back yard.
