In every Adult Family Home in Washington State, there are laws set down by the state, and there are facilities and services added by the owners of the Adult Family Home. High on the list of priorities in both cases is the need to have properly trained staff. Such staff will be looking after your loved one day after day, night after night, so it’s probably the most important consideration as to what qualifications they possess. Some of those qualifications are printed on paper, while others are a little more ethereal.

Light levels both inside and outside an Adult Family Home

If you look at a map of Puget Sound, and on it are placed a mark for every Adult Family Home, you will see that the area around Shoreline, North Seattle and Bothell have a disproportionate number of Adult Family Homes. It’s probably got to do with the fact that there has been, at least in the last few decades, land and/or property that was still affordable, it was still relatively close to the more expensive cities of Bellevue and Seattle, and houses tended to have more land under them.

Most people, when they are looking for an Adult Family Home for the loved one, are doing it for the first time in the lives. Certainly, some people have had prior experience – perhaps your spouse has already placed one of your parents-in-law in either a nursing home or an Adult Family Home in the past and has done a lot of homework on the subject – but most of us will do it perhaps once in a life time, and never repeat the exercise.

Many people, understandably, go hunting for the best place to place their beloved and aging parent. Depending of resources, there is a huge variety of options. Some very ‘high living’ places can have dedicated staff for every resident while others can have a high resident to care giver ratio. It all depends on a resident’s budget, the neighborhood they are considering, and what they really need and want.

One of the biggest differences between a nursing home and an Adult Family Home is that an Adult Family Home is limited, by law, to having no more than six residents in care at any one time. It’s not a limit on the number of rooms, windows, doors or bathrooms, either. It’s simply the number of residents who are being cared for at any one time.

The right time, if there is a simple answer to this question, is when your loved one is physically and emotionally ready for the move. At least, when they are at an optimal point where disruption to them and to your family’s schedule is at a minimum. Still, it can be a challenging move for many individuals, so let’s look at what the challenges are, and how to overcome them with the minimum of fuss.

Moving home at any age comes with challenges

At any age, moving home is challenging. Even an infant knows something is going on when a change of domicile is made. And if you want to irritate a toddler – who on Earth would do that willingly! - all you have to do is move the furniture around and their universe is disturbed once again. Next minute they are crying, and they have to reorient themselves all over again.