Cruise ships -- An alternative to assisted living facilities for the elderly?

[heyabbott]

Interesting article, thought I'd share it.

 

Contact: Elizabeth Crown

e-crown@northwestern.edu

312-503-8928

Northwestern University

 

Living on a cruise ship is a feasible and cost-effective option to assisted living facilities, and the services offered on a cruise ship parallel -- even surpass -- what is provided in senior care facilities, according to a study in the November issue of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.

 

 

 

"Offering many amenities, such as three meals a day with escorts to meals, physicians on site and housekeeping/laundry services, cruise ship could be considered a floating assisted living facility," said Lee Lindquist, M.D., instructor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

 

"Seniors who enjoy travel, have good or excellent cognitive function and require some assistance with activities of daily living are the ideal candidates for cruise ship care," Lindquist said.

 

Lindquist, who is also an attending physician in the divisions of geriatric and general internal medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, compared costs over a 20-year life expectancy after moving to assisted living facilities, nursing homes and a cruise ship, including costs of treating acute illness, Medicare reimbursement and other factors.

 

She found that the net costs of cruise ship living were only about $2,000 higher ($230,000 vs. $228,000) than those associated with the assisted living facilities but resulted in higher quality over the 20-year period.

 

Lindquist's plan would include integration with regular passengers, with seniors selecting a cabin to inhabit as home during their prolonged cruise, whereas other passengers would disembark as usual.

 

The change in passengers would also afford seniors more stimulation and multiple interactions wit new people, she said.

 

Lindquist also interviewed a group of non-bedbound, cognitively intact, community-dwelling seniors aged 65 to 85 for their response to possible cruise ship living. The seniors routinely rated the utility for cruise ship care higher than for traditional options and agreed that a market exists for cruise ship living as an alternative to traditional assisted living or nursing home care.

 

Younger older populations and retiring baby-boomers whom Lindquist queried felt that this idea would be a valuable option for their future. "If this option succeeds, seniors could have much more enjoyable assisted living experience and, for a change, look forward to a time when they become less independent," Lindquist said.

[dakrewser]

Check this thread, we had a discussion of this just a few weeks ago, or so.

[sail7seas]

It was an interesting conversation IMO

 

Worth looking through if the subject interests you.

[JDee]

Gee, is there any topic left unstudied?? And with HAL trying to shake the image of a floating nursing home?? Guess those college profs must have run out of things to study.....

 

Did that cost comparison analysis factor in automatic tipping??

[Sea Island Lady]

Did that cost comparison analysis factor in automatic tipping??

Or insurance. :eek: If the elderly were to get sick, the physician bills from the ship could send them overboard.

 

My children once sat with an elderly man at dinner on the Millennium. He told them that he cruised two weeks out of every month and that he lived with his daughter on off weeks. She would drive him to the pier, drop him off and pick him back up at the end of his trip.

 

We thought it very sad that he traveled by himself. He was really cute though! He wore a navy blue blazer and navy sailing cap. He was such an icon on the ship that he was allowed to sit where ever he wanted each evening.

 

The evening he sat with my children, we had gone to the Olympic for a special dinner and the children decided to go to the dining room without us. When the gentleman entered the dining room, the head waiter was leading him to a table. He stopped at the children's table and said he wanted to sit with them. The head waiter tried to steer him away, thinking my children would feel uncomfortable, but he insisted on sitting with them. My children said it was alright because they felt sorry for him. As it turned out, they had a wonderful time with this gentleman! :D

 

We spoke to him the next day, introduced ourselves and thanked him for keeping the children company. Very nice man! During disembarkation, we saw him standing alone with his luggage...waiting for his daughter I suppose. :(