Exploring Continuing Care Retirement Communities - Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

A Thorough Guide to Your Options

Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) are an attractive residential option for active older adults. CCRCs offer a full continuum of independent housing, assisted living, and skilled nursing care within a single campus setting.

In the Asheville area there are a variety of these kinds of communities, each with a different financial model, various health and wellness options and services, and varied amenities. Navigating your way through all of the choices to find a community that is right for you can be a challenge. Members of the OLLI Life Transitions Committee have designed a course to help you assemble the relevant information and ask the right questions to see whether the CCRC is a living option that meets your needs and to help you choose among the options available to you.

Program Details

Exploring Continuing Care Retirement Communities will meet for six sessions to explore:

– Senior Living – choices and options
– Basis for the decisions to be made regarding those choices
– CCRC history, services, contract types, and fees
– Admission Requirements
– Financial considerations regarding living in a CCRC
– CCRC living accommodations, wait lists, licensing and certification
– Local WNC CCRC options
– Long-term Care insurance
– Potential legal issues
– Planning your personal site visits to CCRCs
– Next steps, depending on your decisions

Dates

Exploring CCRCs meets in-person for six sessions over the course of three weeks. The program will meet the following dates:

Tuesday, February 25, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Thursday, February 27, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, March 4 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 6, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, March 11, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 13, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

If you would like to receive updates on future dates or notification of the opening of registration, click here to complete the interest form for upcoming offerings of Exploring CCRCs.

Costs

The fee for the Winter 2025 Exploring CCRCs program is $150 per person. Program fee covers program materials and administration. A 24-25 OLLI membership is required to register for this program. Transportation is not covered, and participants are expected to provide their own transportation for visits to CCRCs scheduled as part of the program.

Refunds

Refunds will be issued for the program fee, less $25/person administrative charges for cancellations made by 5 p.m. up to 10 days prior to February 25, 2025. For cancellations made less than 10 days prior to February 25, 2025, 50% of the program fee will be refunded. Email olli@unca.edu to request cancellation and refund.

Registration and Payment

Please read these instructions for using the online registration system prior to registering.

Step 1: Create an account

You will need to create an OLLI account in order to register. Access the login page by clicking here. There is no fee to create an account. If you have been an OLLI at UNC Asheville member at any time since 2015, you have a username and password (write them down for future reference). Reset your password if you cannot remember it.

Step 2: Sign in

ADD TO CART buttons will not show up unless you are signed in.

Click SIGN IN.
If you have entered everything correctly, in the blue navigation banner under the long photo of OLLI members at the top of the screen it will say: “Welcome [Your Name].”

Step 3: Add Exploring CCRCs to your cart

If you do not have a current 24-25 annual membership, click here to access the registration page for Membership, then click ADD TO CART.
Click here to directly access the registration page for Exploring CCRCs.
Click ADD TO CART

Click HOME on the far right of the blue navigation banner.
Click the LIFE TRANSITIONS heading, then click EXPLORING CCRCs.
Click ADD TO CART.

Step 4: Purchase items in your cart

Click VIEW CART.
Click CHECK OUT.
Choose your payment method
- If you are using a credit card, be sure that your name and billing address exactly match the information on file with your credit card provider. If there is an error processing your payment, the system will not allow further attempts to provide credit card information. Email us so that we can reset your order and provide instructions; then you can proceed with a credit card payment.

If you do not receive a confirmation screen that you have registered after entering your credit card or if you encounter other issues with payment, call us; your registration status will be pending until we arrange payment.

Space is limited, and this program usually fills up quickly. Registration will remain open until all spots are filled. An option to join the waitlist will become available should the program reach capacity.

You should receive an email with program confirmation upon your successful registration. If not, please contact Hilary Schroeder, life transitions and special programs manager, at hschroed@unca.edu or 828.250.3973.

Testimonials

Consideration of moving to a CCRC is a major event involving financial, legal, and life style changes. OLLI’s CCRC workshop allowed me to explore this option with technical experts, opportunities to personally examine local alternatives in the field, and discuss the experience with like minded peers, many of whom brought their own wisdom to share. This is an important decision and needs to be approached with care; OLLI’s workshop gave me a cost-effective, ‘one stop’ opportunity to think this through.
-Bill O’Connell

I learned so much from the CCRC program that I would have been unable to learn if I tried to explore area CCRCs on my own. It was well organized, and the on-site visits were invaluable. My long list of questions was enhanced by those of my classmates, and well answered by the staff and residents of the CCRCs we visited. Thanks, OLLI for sponsoring such a helpful program.
-Dorothy Routh
Exploring CCRCs course was invaluable for me. I learned so much from the experience as well as from others in the class. There is no way I could have learned as much in the same amount of time if I had tried to do all the research on my own.
-Martha Marshall
I do not live in a CCRC but wanted to understand them as a potential alternative for the future. The OLLI CCRC course gave me a solid understanding of their role in the aging world, their funding and costs, and how to begin to evaluate quality of care and service for these programs. This course left me feeling enriched and better prepared to make decisions about care for myself and family in the future.
-Dan Beerman
The experience of attending the CCRC program offered by OLLI is invaluable. This is a unique opportunity to compare the various types of communities, meet the residents, sample the food, and hear from the knowledgeable Marketing staff about their activities and events.
-Marge Campbell
I would highly recommend Exploring CCRCs for anyone about to deal with the life task of making plans for retirement living. Even if one is fairly knowledgeable about CCRCs (as I was, having worked as a CCRC Resident Services Director some years ago), it is helpful to have updated information on the local options, as well as opportunities to share opinions and reactions with others in the class. Though individual visits to facilities will be needed when one is actually making a decision to apply, the group perspective is valuable as one begins to consider timing, resources, and needs.
-Nancy Schuman

Karen and I both took this course in 2014 and found it not only very well-conceived and managed, but essential to our thinking about the future. We credit the course directly with giving us the informed perspective on CCRCs that resulted in our placing a deposit at a community we visited with the class. That decision gave us the same kind of peace of mind as a good insurance policy – we knew that our place would be guaranteed if we eventually made the decision to move to a continuing care community, and which one was our preference, having sampled the variety of types, plans, costs, and locations in the Asheville area.
-Ron Scheinman & Karen Sparer
I want to glowingly praise this program; it was that helpful to me. For anyone even remotely considering a move someday to a CCRC, this class is worth every penny. After taking this class, I feel well equipped to choose the right one.
-Beth Isaacs