Imagining a future with more regulation in assisted living

Assisted living communities will continue to be an alternative to nursing homes in 2025 for Connecticut seniors who need help with daily care but want to maintain a sense of independence.

But the assisted living industry could begin to look more like the nursing home industry by 2025 in the way it’s regulated, advocates say.

“The issue is to get the government involved in moving this forward in a more universal way, because there are no federal requirements for assisted living except in regards to the structure of the housing,” says Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a Manhattan-based nonprofit.

“We are seeing an expansion of assisted living but the federal government has not done any safety standards, so we have been worried about assisted living residents in places that are not able to monitor and handle a health care threat — even less one that is contagious.”

Assisted living — apartments with resources and services provided to tenants in-house — has been as hard-hit in Connecticut by the coronavirus pandemic as nursing homes, with hundreds of cases of residents with COVID-19 reported to the state.

Among the protection advocates are calling for in all assisted living facilities are registered nurses on staff, minimum requirements for staffing and training, and regular inspections.

As a state, Connecticut already requires the supervisor of assisted living services to be a registered nurse, and the state conducts biennial surveys of its 110 assisted living facilities.

With more projects on the way, such as a 200-unit senior living facility proposed in Stamford, it’s hard to know how many more assisted living communities Connecticut can support. “Assisted living is a good thing for a lot of people until they run out of money or become frail or both, and they end up in nursing homes,” said Julie Robison, a professor of medicine at the UConn Center on Aging. “Medicare doesn’t cover most assisted living care.”

Mollot said even in Connecticut, with its high cost of living, he expects more assisted living communities in 2025.