Assisted living facilities are slow to gain acceptance - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When 91-year-old Marie Holtzapfel arrived at RoseCrest Assisted Living Residence in July from another long-term care facility, she could hardly have been aware she was part of some rare vanguard in Pennsylvania.

For one thing, like all 15 initial residents in the homelike setting in Mars, Mrs. Holtzapfel has had dementia for years. For another, RoseCrest wasn't supposed to be the only licensed assisted-living center in southwestern Pennsylvania as of the end of October, and one of just 10 in the state.

State officials began using the new category of long-term care called assisted living in January as a middle ground between Pennsylvania's long-existing personal care home and nursing home industries. The Rendell administration, which oversaw development of the assisted-living regulations, had predicted there would be at least 150 centers licensed by now, aiming for a less institutional atmosphere than nursing homes but higher standards than what is mandated in personal care homes.

The new category is part of a trend in which state governments have tried to de-emphasize nursing home use because it is the most costly form of long-term care to help fund, in addition to being the least desired by the public.

But assisted living's growth depends on an upgrade to it among the more than 1,300 personal care homes in Pennsylvania. Thus far, they are reacting to it with all the eagerness of frail Aunt Hazel hearing it's time to move out of her longtime home into a group facility for her own good.

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