What independent living is, in licence terms
An independent living community rents apartments to people who do not need help bathing, dressing or taking medication. Because nobody is providing that help, there is generally no RCFE licence and therefore no entry on the state register we publish. All 15 of the Santa Monica homes on our list are licensed care.
That distinction is not pedantry. It is the thing that makes the prices incomparable, and it is the thing that decides what happens when her needs change.
Santa Monica makes this an expensive decision
Independent living here competes with ordinary Santa Monica rent, and ordinary Santa Monica rent is the constraint on everything. Families frequently work out that a smaller apartment plus a few hours of home care a week costs less than a community and asks far less of a parent who does not want to move in the first place.
Sometimes the right advice is not to move at all. We will give it, even though we are not paid for it.
The question that settles it
Ask whether the reason for moving is the house or the isolation. If it is the house, meaning stairs, upkeep, a garden nobody can manage any more, then a smaller place nearby solves it and a community is an expensive way to solve it.
If it is isolation, a community solves something an apartment will not. Those are different problems with different answers, and families frequently arrive having merged them into one.
When independent living becomes the wrong answer
The real risk is that care needs arrive and the community is not licensed to meet them, so there is a second move at the worst possible moment, usually straight out of a hospital.
Before signing anything, ask what happens if she needs help with medication next year, and ask whether anything on the same campus holds an RCFE licence. If the answer is no, plan the second move now rather than discovering it later. Santa Monica only has 15 licensed homes and the Westside catchment only has 26, so the fallback is not as wide as it sounds.
If you are not sure which of these you are looking at
Call and describe an ordinary day. That is usually enough for us to tell you whether you are looking at independent living, home care, or a licensed home, and it costs nothing to find out.
Written and reviewed by Senior Placement Santa Monica, , against the California Department of Social Services licence register.