Board and care and assisted living placement in Long Beach

Families here usually say board and care. The state calls the same thing a residential care facility for the elderly, or RCFE. Board and care homes, licensed in California as RCFEs, are small: a house on a residential street where a few older adults live with caregivers who help with bathing, dressing, meals and medications.

Long Beach is a large city with many residential neighborhoods, and that works in a family's favor: there are more places to look, and a better chance of finding a home near whoever will visit most. Larger assisted living communities and memory care are also part of the picture, and the board and care placement page explains how Hamssa compares them for a particular person.

Much of Long Beach was built early. The city has designated 18 neighborhoods as historic districts, among them Belmont Heights, Bluff Park, Bluff Heights, Rose Park and Carroll Park, where Craftsman and California bungalows from the 1900s to the 1920s are common. California Heights, the largest district, has nearly 1,500 homes and was developed after the city's economic boom of the 1920s.

A care home can operate in a house of any age, and an older house can be a warm, familiar place to live. It does mean a few things deserve a closer look when you visit, wherever in the city the home is:

• Steps at the front door or between rooms, and whether there is a ramp.
• Doorway and hallway width if your parent uses a walker or wheelchair.
• The bathroom your parent would use: grab bars, a roll-in or low-threshold shower, room for a caregiver to help.
• Whether the bedroom is private or shared, and how far it is from the bathroom.
• Parking and how easy it is for family to drop in.

Nearly every California city relies on its county for public health. Long Beach runs its own Department of Health and Human Services, which the city describes as one of only three city-operated health departments in California. Two of its services for older adults are worth knowing while you decide about care.

Two large hospitals inside the city are MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center on Atlantic Avenue and Dignity Health - St. Mary Medical Center on Linden Avenue. If your relative is in either one and the team says she cannot go home alone, you will be asked for a plan, often with only a few days to make it.

Hamssa has worked with families during a hospital or skilled nursing stay and has coordinated with case workers and social workers at discharge. She is independent of the hospitals. The hospital discharge placement page covers what to ask the case manager. If your relative is on hospice, Hamssa has helped families in that situation find a board and care home: see hospice and board and care.

You talk with Hamssa about care needs, health conditions, preferences, lifestyle and monthly budget. She suggests a short list, schedules tours and goes with you, helps you talk terms with the home, and checks in after the move. Bring the tour checklist along.

Hamssa's placement help is free for families, as explained on the page about whether senior placement is free. The home's monthly charge is separate and varies by home, room and level of care. The guide to board and care costs in California explains how homes set their rates.

She refers families only to homes licensed by the State of California that she has toured herself, after checking each one’s licensing record for citations and complaints. The Department of Social Services licenses and monitors RCFEs, and the guide on checking an RCFE license shows how to look a home up. To begin, contact Hamssa by phone, text or WhatsApp at 310-594-0694.