Adult care homes provide a residential setting, that is, a home-like atmosphere, for functionally impaired persons in an attempt to preserve personal autonomy and privacy. The state of Oregon is one of the few states where adult care homes flourish. In Oregon, an adult care home is an actual home business that just happens to be closely regulated by the state. The macro-environmental affect on the adult care homes begins and ends with the Adult Foster Homes Administrative Rules. The tight regulation the state puts on owners and the strong competitive environment – in the Portland Metropolitan area there is well over 600 care homes that are licensed to care for five elderly persons per home – make up two of the toughest obstacles owners must hurdle. In spite of this, there are owners who operate more than one home because the business of adult foster/care homes is quite lucrative. The homes providing elder care are more lucrative than homes providing care for the developmentally disabled.
The owner of an adult care home providing care for the elderly can earn per person per month as much as $4,000. A care home housing five elderly persons, at $4,000 per person, can net at least $4,000, enough to afford a financial advisor. Science has yet to learn how to stop the aging process, therefore, growing old will continue to be a fact of life. For that reason, adult care homes have a place in the future of the United States as an option for a home business.
Adult Care Homes Are Not Mini Nursing HomesIn adult care homes in Oregon the clients are referred to as “residents,” not “patients,” and the staff members are caregivers, not caretakers. Each client accepted into the home must be given a copy of the Residents’ Bill Rights and have each item explained to the client’s understanding. The idea of adult care homes is to allow the elderly person to be as independent as possible. If the elderly person can do his/her toileting and hygiene, then the operator and caregiver must allow the elderly person to do so even if it is difficult or painful for the person.
It is extremely easy to dominate an elderly person. It is also extremely easy to care an elderly person into dependency. Since the elderly person was young during the time when being waited on hand and foot was a sign of the “good life.” The elderly person will lay back and soak it up until one day the person discovers he/she has no idea how to choose what clothes to wear, how to dress him/herself, or how to perform basic hygiene. Some unethical owners who charge according to what care is given, will do just that, care the elderly person/resident into dependency. By intentionally caring a resident into dependency an owner will have violated the resident’s rights. If this violation comes to the attention of the State the owner and the caregivers will be prosecuted.
The Oregon adult care home proliferation began in the 1980s when Oregon allowed adult care homes to receive Medcaid for payment. It was thought that adult care homes would supplement or replace nursing homes when in fact, as research has shown, adult care homes are one step before the nursing home.
Adult care home owners range from the savvy business owner and college graduate to the wage earner who for most of his/her adult life had worked hard for someone else and now finally has a stake of his/her own. Such diversity of people makes for different managing styles and different choices of business entities.
The owners who have one home usually operate his/her home personally as a sole proprietorship. Owners of three or more homes usually incorporate and under that umbrella operate his/her homes. Usually it is the owners of more than one adult care home who hires “Resident Managers” to handle the day to day planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (POLC) needs of the home, leaving the owner free to focus on the macro POLC functions of the corporation.
After All It Is A Business, Albeit A Home Business
Operating an adult care home is the business of tender loving care but it doesn’t have to look and feel like a business. The owners who have conquer the task of making their adult care home business look, feel, and smell like a home are the owners whose home(s) are always full and the homes have a waiting list.
Source:
Kane, R.A., Kane, R.L., Hixon Illston, L., Nyman, J.A., & Finch, M. (1991, Sept.). Adult foster care for the elderly in Oregon: A mainstream alternative to nursing home? American Journal of Public Health, 81(9), p1113-1120.
Starting An Adult Care Home Business
