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Supportive Living Calgary

Find communities offering the assistance you need

Communities listed here are licensed to provide assistance under Alberta's Supportive Living Accommodation Licensing Act, and they meet Supportive Living Accommodation Standards. That said, these communities offer a lot more than that! Take a close look at these communities and imagine how you can change all aspects of your life for the better!

Supportive living and assisted living

Supportive living is the name applied to what were traditionally referred to as assisted living communities in Calgary and the rest of Alberta.  Supportive living is the right solution for any Calgary senior who has reached a point where they need help with aspects of personal daily care.

Why people move into supported living

Communities listed above will change your life in a variety of ways. Certainly, you will be get the care you need. (Confirm with the community of your choice that they can provide the health service or personal care you require.) These communities, though, will also offer high quality environments, exceptional care staff and a great community of people for you to live with.

Moving into a supportive living (or assisted living) community in Calgary can make much more of your life better than simply receiving extended care. Some ways in which communities improve your life include any or all of the following:

• Group activities that foster friendships with other members of the community.
• High quality environments that help make you feel better about yourself. It's well understood that living in a clean environment with newness and a better quality of life will further promote improvement in your health. To put it simply, living around happy, healthy people will make you happier and healthier.
• Many communities listed here offer a great variety of amenities like salt water pools indoors, exercise rooms, onsite meeting places like pubs, and so much more. All of these amenities, close at hand, contribute further to improving your feelings about yourself and about life in general.

We know the real reason people require a supportive living community in Calgary will be the need for personal care. The actual requirements will vary from one individual to the next, but a few are the most typical. Here is a look at the care you will get in supportive living, and what you and other supportive living senior care residents will have access to, and/or need of:

• Transfer or mobility assistance is perhaps the most common reason people search for an assisted living community in Alberta. Typically, seniors who require this service have minor disabilities. They may have received this assistance from a caregiver or home care professional, with a move into a supportive living community precipitated by family caregivers no longer being able to provide this care, or a deepening of this need that makes home care support no longer sensible. In other cases, this need is precipitated by a crisis or change in health.
• Bathing and dressing care is a requirement for some people, also caused by a disability or worsening health. This type of care – typically involving more work – may be billed separately and/or handled by a different staff member than transfer assistance.
• Feeding assistance may be required by some people with specific health issues. Again, this is also likely to be billed separately by one of the communities listed here.
• Care for incontinence is perhaps the most delicate kind of care that can be provided for in these communities. But professional handling of this, in a professional environment, can make it more dignified than treatment you get in any other kind of environment.

Review our survey of supportive living costs in Alberta, including some examples from Calgary. 

An overview of supportive living in Calgary

Assisted living remains a popular phrase in Alberta, although the proper (official) term is supportive living. Supportive living (Levels 3 & 4) or Supportive Housing falls on the continuum of care between independent living and more protracted types of care like long term care. Most communities above are focused on offering Supportive Living Level 3, ideal for people who can no longer manage in their own home and need some help with some personal care services as listed above. These services are provided by home care providers.

Supportive living communities also offer hospitality services (including meals, housekeeping services, laundry services and the like) as well as 24-hour emergency response and related security. The additional care required can be paid for privately, unless clients are assessed by Alberta Health Services (AHS) as ‘designated.’ Those who are assessed as such ('designated') receive financial help from the Government and will pay a lesser monthly fee. If a client requires help with many daily tasks, including unscheduled care they qualify for long term care. In this case, they no longer live in supportive living accommodations. This care, too, can be subsidized or private. 

One of the advantages of communities listed above is that they allow couples with varying care requirements (where one spouse is more independent, for example) to remain together. 

Communities are licensed under the Supportive Living Accommodation Licensing Act (enforced April 2010), and they are required to meet Supportive Living Accommodation Standards. This maximizes consumer protection and the confidence you have in the care you are getting.

The Supportive Living Accommodation Licensing Act gives specific prescriptions that govern care home inspections. Inspectors check community's accounting books, test food and much more. Residents can also register their own complaints and follow these up under provisions of the Act. In some cases – unlikely to ever affect any of the premiere locations listed here–the Act allows for revocation of licenses and fines up to $100,000.  Learn much more: Act S23P5.

Other important benefits of Calgary retirement homes

You can assume other benefits to moving into supportive living, but they are still worth noting. These benefits also go a long way to improving your life and can be important to improving your health, wellbeing and the overall quality of your life. Let's look at those:

• The companionship of others your own age is a critical enhancement to your life, over the inherent loneliness of living by yourself. People moving into a seniors' community discover this as a by-product – much to their delight. There are now friends right outside the door of your suite, always something to do and someone to do it with, something to laugh about and someone to laugh with. And that's not to say that you always have to be social. If you like your own space, there's plenty of that, too, in the privacy of your own suite. It's really ideal.
• Home maintenance, in all forms is a thing of the past. No more housework, cleaning, dishes, snow shoveling – all those pesky tasks that get more difficult with age. These are all taken care of by someone else, here. And another thing is the money! No more roof repairs or paying plumbers and other service people. No more buying groceries or paying property taxes. Think about all these things when you look at what it will "cost" to move into a high quality supportive living community.
• Safety and security. You're moving into a community where people are on watch around the clock, where the doors are locked at night to the outside world, and where you know – and family members know, too – that if you need any help it's just a call bell away.