Most of Florida’s senior living facilities are concentrated around the state’s largest cities: Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville. The Palms of Sebring is an exception – thriving for the past 50 years in the tiny town of Sebring, Florida. Located about 90 miles due south of Orlando, far from any interstate, Sebring is a small town in the middle of the state. And location is not the only thing that makes The Palms unique.

Tower apartments at The Palms at Sebring

The Palms of Sebring is Highlands County’s only retirement community offering three levels of living – independent living, assisted living and a nursing home. This senior living facility has approximately 70 units each in independent and assisted living, and 120 beds in the nursing home.

While many Florida continuing care retirement communities such as this require a large, up-front community fee, The Palms of Sebring only charges new residents a one-time fee of $750. After that, independent living residents choose whether to live in the full-service Tower apartments, where monthly rent starts at $1689 and includes utilities, all meals, housekeeping, and transportation; or the Poinsettia apartments, where monthly rents starts at just $901 and does not include meals or housekeeping. Recreational activities and wellness programs are included for residents in both buildings. Another unique feature of The Palms is that they do allow residents to have pets – cats and dogs in the Poinsettia Apartments and cats only in the Tower Apartments.

In addition, the dining room is open continually from 7am – 6pm. “So if you want a steak dinner at two in the afternoon, you can have it,” explains marketing director Janice Roberts. “Our executive chef is wonderful.”

Roberts also told me The Palms has a home health agency that provides services to residents in their Palms apartments, and also to individuals who do not live on property.

To learn about this Florida senior living facility, visit The Palms at Sebring. To search for other senior living facilities around Florida, visit Florida Senior Living Advisor.

This week’s “Friday’s Featured Facility” is actually not a facility but a senior living option that provides services to the elderly in their own homes. There are two different types of services:

• home health agencies, which are licensed to send both skilled (RN’s, Therapists, Social Workers) and unskilled (home health aides, certified nursing assistants, homemaker/companions) staff into a patient’s home. These services are usually covered by Medicare.
• home care/companion agencies, which employ individuals to do housekeeping, cook, run errands and provide companionship. These types of services are private pay, and not covered by anything except some long-term care insurance policies and veterans benefits.

There are hundreds of both types of agencies throughout Florida. If you are considering this type of care for yourself or an elderly family member, you should review this Home Health Guide  provided by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.

Jennifer Campbell, Age Advantage Home Care

I recently met Jennifer Campbell, who owns Age Advantage, a home care agency serving Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties. Jennifer says she currently has about 60 employees that serve her elderly clients for as little as four hours at a time up to live-in care. Jennifer’s agency employs companions, home health aides and certified nursing assistants, so she can provide a wide range of services.

“We basically do anything a family member would do but can’t,” she explained. Jennifer believes as the baby boomer generation continues to age, more and more of them will opt for in-home services. “I think it is a trend. The baby boomers are not going to go to facilities. And people are living longer than they ever were so they will need this type of assistance.”

Jennifer says that the benefits of hiring an agency such as hers include: back-up caregivers, caregiver replacement, bonding, insurance and licensing, supervision of staff, background checks, worker’s compensation, and experienced caregivers. Caregivers are available 24 hours a day, 365 days.

Before selecting a home care agency, Jennifer suggests you ask these questions:
1. Are your caregivers employees?
2. What are your hiring requirements?
3. Are your caregivers supervised? How often? 
4. How do you know if your caregiver has reported to work?
5. How long does it take you to replace a caregiver who has not shown up to work?
6. Can you be reached outside of business hours?  How quickly?
7. Do you develop a comprehensive care plan with the patient prior to services? Is this information shared with the caregiver?
8. What benefits do you offer your caregivers? (caregivers with benefits are long term caregiver’s)
9. Do you require the client’s to sign a service agreement? Do you require a deposit?

To understand all the different types of senior care options available in Florida, visit the definitions page on Florida Senior Living Advisor.