Invest the time to find the right continuing-care community

When choosing a continuing-care retirement community or helping the person you're caring for find one:

• Ask to see licensing reports. This will give you an idea of how any given community has fared on past inspections and whether there have been any substantiated complaints.
• Look at the activity calendar and see whether it matches the interests of those you're caring for.
• Be sure to visit all three wings or areas -- independent living, assisted living, and skilled nursing -- to get an impression of whether they're clean and pleasant, whether residents seem content, whether enough staffers seem to be present for the number of residents, and so on.
• Spend time there. As with any retirement or care community you're looking into, there's no substitute for spending time there: joining residents for meals and talking with them about their experience. (If administrators discourage you from talking to current residents, this may be a red flag.)

The whole idea behind continuing care is that this is a place for older adults to spend the rest of their lives, so invest some time in getting to know a community and making sure they feel comfortable there before making a commitment.