How To Find Assisted Living For African American Seniors

Covered in this guide:

• Barriers African Americans Face When Seeking Assisted Living
• Dealing With Cultural Guilt of Moving a Loved One to Assisted Living
• Downloadable Checklist: What To Look For in an Assisted Living Community for an African American Senior
• Additional Resources for African American Seniors

Updated: August 14, 2023 | Reviewed by: Dr. Brindusa Vanta, MD

Finding the right assisted living resources is a challenge many seniors will face, whether now or in the years to come. While it's never easy to admit the need for outside help, even when it's necessary, choosing somewhere safe and comfortable to call home can make the later years in life far easier to maneuver. 

However, making a choice isn't always easy, especially for marginalized groups that may want or need a specialized approach to health and wellness. African Americans, for example, have faced widespread racism in the United States, reporting higher rates of career, housing, and medical discrimination that can negatively affect things like appropriate senior care. In fact, one study found that 22% of Black Americans have actually made the choice to forego seeking health care due to concerns about prejudice impacting quality of care, a trend that also includes senior care. 

This guide will help African Americans find safe, trustworthy assisted living care for themselves or their loved ones in a way that minimizes the risks of prejudice and racism. This includes exploring the discrimination barriers often faced by the Black community, the impact of a deep-rooted cultural distrust of the medical industry, the propensity for financial hurdles and resources that can guide the decision-making process. 

Barriers African Americans Face When Seeking Assisted Living

While race relations in the United States have improved over the last several decades, the Black community still faces many hurdles in life, including when seeking assisted living care. Ranging from discrimination by health care providers to financial challenges due to decades of economic practices like redlining, African American seniors can find themselves facing many barriers when looking for appropriate assistance. These are points to keep in mind when weighing the advantages of senior care for African Americans and evaluating available resources.

Discrimination

Issues of discrimination can be a serious problem for Black seniors looking for assisted living centers that will provide adequate care and support. 

Historically, issues of discrimination have impacted housing options of all kinds, from policies to prevent leasing apartments in predominantly white areas to banks refusing financing to buy a home. While there are now legal protections in place restricting the ability to limit services based on inherent traits like race and gender, both conscious and unconscious biases can still make securing housing, including senior living housing, problematic. 

Many managers and leasing agents in the senior care space still prioritize white residents, making minority groups lower priorities for admission in assisted living facilities. This can make it challenging for African Americans to find placement in a facility even after making a decision and applying for residence, effectively taking some local choices off the table entirely. Seniors may apply for multiple facilities, only to be barred from admission entirely or for an unreasonably long time. 

One study of 400 hospitals found that in comparison to their white counterparts, African Americans routinely receive cheaper, older and more conservative treatments in patients with heart disease. Further, this research concluded that Black patients are more likely to be discharged early after surgical procedures, receive less effective cancer treatments, like being denied mastectomies, and are in general more likely to receive less desirable treatments. This can impact quality of life for seniors as well, with the health issues associated with aging being treated inadequately or negligently. 

With such serious barriers in place for receiving a spot in an assisted living facility and receiving the care needed once admitted, the discrimination African Americans face can result in significant difficulty in finding quality senior care. 

Financial Challenges

For many years, economic policies in the United States worked to financially disadvantage Black Americans. From restricting access to housing in safe areas and inadequate educational opportunities to fewer employment resources, many African Americans have found it hard, if not impossible, to build the kind of generational advantages white families are able to enjoy. 

Racial segregation, such as schools exclusively for white students or businesses refusing to hire Black workers or even serve Black patrons, and redlining, a practice of refusing financing to individuals due to factors like skin color or current residence, created significant systemic disadvantages that exist to this day. Communities of Black families are still more likely to be located in lower income areas with access to fewer resources due to a historic inability to obtain the loans required to purchase homes in middle- and upper-middle-class white neighborhoods. 

These lower income areas are less likely to have quality educational systems, meaning that students are less likely to be prepared to pursue additional education, such as going to a 4-year college. In fact, even high school graduation rates aren't equal; a study by the Department of Education found that 89% of white students graduate from high school versus 79% of Black students. 

Without a high school diploma or college degree, high-paying work is harder to obtain, meaning that African Americans who are unable to finish secondary school, or who don't get bachelor's or master's degrees, are largely relegated to lower paying jobs. This often translates to hourly jobs that don't provide the health care benefits or retirement savings advantages of salaried career positions. In addition, even educated Black professionals are less likely to be hired than their white peers, with 1 in 4 Black workers reporting facing discrimination in a place of employment. 

With generations of restricted access to education, limited opportunities for financial growth and, consequently, a lack of retirement savings, many African Americans may be unable to pay for premium assisted living facilities. While there are often low-income or government-funded retirement resources available, these tend to be of lesser quality than the expensive private facilities white seniors can afford. 

Cultural Distrust

The systemic disadvantages facing Black Americans are clear, from lower-quality health care to government-imposed restrictions on economic growth. While these situations are hurdles independently for African American seniors seeking care in retirement, there is also a cultural component to keep in mind. Many Black Americans are inherently distrustful of health care providers and government institutions in general, regardless of source. For example, when asked about COVID-19 prevention measures in November 2020, only 42% of Black Americans surveyed said they would feel comfortable taking a government-endorsed vaccine. The precedence here is telling; events like the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male demonstrated that medical practitioners have not always been truthful in the care, or lack thereof, provided to Black patients. 

This cultural distrust can translate to members of the African American community not even considering assisted living care for their parents or grandparents simply due to a belief that seniors will suffer rather than thrive. Instead, many members of the Black community are of the belief that it's always best to care for aging family members at home, independently, rather than seeking out health care centers. In fact, some African Americans feel that putting a family member in an assisted living facility would be morally wrong due to the importance of strong familial relationships. 

While care provided by a family member, like a sibling or child, can be a wonderful option for some, it can also place undue burden on those who agree to caretaking responsibilities, creating additional financial struggles if full-time care doesn't allow for working a day job. This can put further stress on economic growth for some Black families. 

This distrust is not due to paranoia and is not unwarranted. The above points related to intentional economic disenfranchisement and proven health care discrimination can indeed mean that seniors will not receive the care necessary in some facilities. However, this is not universally true, and facilities that aim to support Black seniors in the later years of life can provide necessary advantages, such as access to around-the-clock care, senior-specific social activities and health care professionals in emergency situations.

All families will make the health care decisions they feel are right, but selecting an assisted living facility may be the best possible choice for African Americans who can no longer live independently. When carefully chosen based on individual needs and extensive research, assisted living communities can be excellent options for Black seniors. 

Dealing With Cultural Guilt of Moving a Loved One to Assisted Living

Due to the established cultural distrust of health care facilities, some African Americans may feel guilt or shame in placing a family member in an assisted living facility. These individuals may fear judgment by members of their community or worry that the health care options available will be inadequate, resulting in suffering, illness or premature death. Even when it's undeniable that assisted living is the right choice — if, for example, there are no family members poised to provide care or if health challenges are too complex to manage without significant intervention — this kind of guilt can be hard to overcome. 

These tips can help assuage the cultural guilt of moving a loved one to assisted living:

Understand That Guilt Is Normal

Feeling guilty about putting a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle or another family member into assisted living is very normal, regardless of cultural background. There's a certain sense of failure in realizing that there's no way to care for a loved one or that personal efforts will do more harm than good. By acknowledging that many other people feel the same way, it can be easier to rationalize or come to terms with feelings. In addition, by realizing that others, even others within a family unit, may feel the same, talking about feelings of guilt as a united team can help normalize emotions.

Talk Out Feelings

Sometimes, just talking through struggles of all kinds can make a world of difference, and this includes when making the choice to put a loved one in an assisted living facility. This can include professional intervention, like working with a therapist, or simply discussing the situation with friends and family members. By expressing concerns and being reassured by people who understand and can sympathize, it's possible to better process feelings of remorse or anxiety. This is also a process that can continue over time, so it's possible to address the changing state of guilt should it develop. 

Use Logic

Logic doesn't always outshine emotion, especially at first, but working through feelings rationally can be highly beneficial. For example, come up with answers to questions like:

• What would be the consequences of the alternative?
• What can assisted living provide my loved one that I can't?
• What could happen if my loved one doesn't have around-the-clock access to care?
• What opportunities would my loved one be missing out on if not in assisted living?

By going through the realities of making a choice — things like how much danger a loved one could be in without appropriate access to medical intervention — it's possible to come to terms with feelings in a logical, reasoned way. 

Research Thoroughly

Making a decision on the right resources for a loved one is very challenging, especially with the roadblocks facing assisted living in the African American community. However, proper research can go a long way in instilling confidence that a decision is the right one. Turning to resources specifically designed for Black seniors in fighting discrimination can be a good way to vet facilities and avoid making inappropriate care decisions. Choosing the right center that meets a loved one's needs in a trustworthy way can do wonders in helping to alleviate guilt. 

Downloadable Checklist: What To Look For in an Assisted Living Community for an African American Senior

Additional Resources for African American Seniors 

For African Americans considering assisted living care for their loved ones, or for African Americans who have already decided that assisted living is the right choice, the right information can be key. These resources can help Black seniors and their families locate facilities they can trust, including centers that are safe, trustworthy options.