Nursing Homes

If your parents need a nursing home (a “Skilled nursing facility” or convalescent home or long-term care facility or rest home), they need constant nursing care and significant help with activities of daily living.

The best website for finding the nearest nursing homes in Encino and which are the good ones, is Medicare’s - here - even though Medicare generally doesn't pay for long term care. If the browser doesn’t work, use this. I find using the zip code 91316 and a 10 mile radius pulls up a good selection – 35 nursing homes rated from one star to five. There’s even a useful map locator too. Younger adults with physical or mental disabilities may be eligible. Another website is this one but you have to search zip codes one at a time (there's no expanding radius tool).

If it’s paying for nursing home care that’s worrying you, there are very useful Resource pages, here and here.

After that is sorted out, the next thing to read up on is what your (and your parents’) rights are. The California Department of Public Health has a great guide to this (make sure you check the second page) - here.

To read up further on the subject, what we have right now is unsustainable as the number of elderly in the US will soar over the next few decades and there won’t be enough nursing homes for everyone. So start with LA County’s Community and Senior Services website here to learn more about what state services are available currently and take it from there.