Senior housing or assisted living?

I guess this is coming up a lot, but we are starting to think about senior housing or assisted living options. Mom is really starting have an issue living in her own house. I am worried about her safety and it is becoming more and more of a burden on me. I spend a lot of time taking care of her and driving her to and from health care appointments, the senior center, visiting her friend in senior housing or nursing homes or assisted living facilities. I think it is time to look into getting her into a housing situation that is more suited for senior citizens. Her neighbors are great but they are not really ready to care for an elderly lady.

I'm not sure where she fits in the spectrum from senior housing to assisted living. I think she would prefer the assisted living option but it looks like it is going to be too expensive and she doesn't really need all of the services that the local assisted living places are offering. They have on site health care and will check in on her several times a day, and she likes the contact, but she is really still pretty independent and assisted living seems to be designed for people who can't get around and/or are no longer really competent to take care of themselves. Fortunately she really can, its just that I worry about her living on her own in her own house.

The senior housing option looks like it might be a better fit. She would be surrounded by other senior citizens and wouldn't always feel like the "elderly lady down the street" which she has complained about before. The senior housing and retirement communities around here though seem to have very long waiting lists. It feels like you have to wait for people to die in order to get into senior housing or a retirement community. It is a little morbid. Maybe there is a progression from senior housing or a retirement community to assisted living, to a nursing home, to ... Maybe she just need to get on the path and just follow people through.

I also need to publicly thank the guys at RidgeDetail for great snow plowing service for my Mom this year.

I took a look at the senior housing / assisted living information on www.seniorsnh.com but it looks like they still have a lot of adding to do.