Residential options for aging

May 3rd, 2010 | By: Fred Nystrom

Many of us are in the aptly named “sandwich” phase of life, with the challenges of raising children while at the same time trying to be a helpful resource for our aging parents.

At some point in the not so distant future we will likely be helping our parents make choices about how and where to live during their senior years. We might even be looking ahead to making such choices for ourselves.

Luckily, our community has a wide range of professionally run senior living facilities with dedicated and caring staffs. This article features five such facilities and highlights some of the differences in the services they provide. Not included are facilities that provide only skilled nursing services. I will also share the lessons I’ve learned from this research, along with the experience I gained by helping my own mother through her unsettling five-year slide from feisty independence to death from dementia.

The first two facilities are designed for more independent seniors, the next two offer assisted-living care, and the fifth provides continuing care for life.

Bellewood Retirement Living

Newly remodeled Bellewood has been providing senior living services for 25 years on the Sammamish Plateau. Life at Bellewood is about choices. Services include dining, housekeeping, and transportation. Activities focus on emotional, spiritual, cultural, physical, and intellectual interests. A variety of fitness programs complement residents’ independent lifestyle. Ages range from 74 to 100; the average age is 83.

Long-term manager Keenon Kennedy says seniors who live at Bellewood experience a “relaxed but active lifestyle in a community of friendly neighbors and staff. Residents can surf the net with our complimentary high-speed computers, walk the beautiful walking paths with fountains and flowers, or take one of our ongoing educational classes. It’s a lifestyle that you and I can look forward to in our senior years.”

Meals are provided in the spacious and well-appointed Cascade Dining Room. Each day, seven or eight entrées are offered for dinner, all prepared by experienced on-site chefs. Luncheon service is also offered. Most residents eat breakfast in their own apartment.

Transportation is provided seven days a week in air-conditioned motor coaches. Valet parking is offered for residents with private cars.

Kennedy points out that “our residents come locally as well as from out of state to live at Bellewood. They enjoy their independent lifestyle here with us. With our staff averaging over 10 years of service, we become an extended family to our residents.”

Bellewood provides month-to-month apartment rentals; residences range from 350-square-foot studios to 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath units. Rent is based on apartment size and ranges from $1,970 to $3,675 for one person. An additional person in the same unit is an extra $400. The monthly rate includes one meal a day, community activities, and utilities except personal telephone.

University House

University House is aptly named: it was constructed and its guest services were designed in collaboration with the University of Washington to stimulate residents intellectually, physically, and emotionally. Located on the hill above Lake Sammamish Boulevard, University House provides residents with territorial or garden-view units.

The 185 apartments are available on a month-to-month rental basis. Apartment floor plans include studios, one, two and three bedroom suites ranging from $2400 to $8500 per month; there is an additional fee for a second adult. Each unit is equipped with a full kitchen and security monitoring programs and many apartments have a patio or balcony. Residents can bring their own furniture and pets.

One meal daily is included in the basic package. There is an excellent selection of menu options. Service is provided in a sophisticated and spacious dining room on the main floor, and family members are often able to join residents for a relaxing evening meal. The Chinook Restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch as well.

Executive Director Rick Guthrie is especially proud of the additional programs. He told me, “We stress the value of fitness and have launched an Enhance Fitness program to help residents develop and maintain core body strength and flexibility. In addition, we have a heated saltwater swimming pool to help keep skin healthy and joints loose, as well as a personal trainer.” (The average age of residents is early 80s, with a minimum age of 62.)

University House also offers a variety of classes and groups through their Life Enrichment Program, meant to stimulate the brain and encourage socialization. Memory Fitness is a wonderful program for those experiencing short-term memory loss. The physical and intellectual classes are provided so that residents can maintain and enhance their personal freedom and quality of life. Guthrie was quick to say, “We have the largest art gallery in Issaquah.”

Assisted-living services, managed by two RN’s, are also available.

Complimentary transportation is provided seven days a week, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., including service to Bellevue, Mercer Island, Redmond, and Seattle. Era Living owns and manages eight communities all in King County.

The next two facilities specialize in servicing the needs of residents who require more assistance with the daily activities of life.

Spiritwood at Pine Lake

Spiritwood is a 92-room assisted-living facility that also provides “memory care” in a separate unit for those with dementia. Residents range from being independent to requiring 24-hour care, and there is a small hospice facility. Spiritwood, the only facility in this article that accepts Medicaid, is operated by Village Concepts, a Washington-based management team.

Monthly rates for the studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units range from $2,995 to $4,295 a month. Residents may bring their own furniture; Spiritwood provides housekeeping and launders towels and sheets. There are kitchenettes in each unit, and three meals daily are served in the dining room and included in the monthly rate.

Executive Director John Wallace noted, “We provide assistance with the activities of daily life—medical, escort, and transportation services—all within a caring and supporting environment, where 83 percent of our residents receive the assisted-living services.”

Aegis of Issaquah

Aegis of Issaquah is located just off Newport Way, consists of seven cottages, with 42 studios for memory care, 42 studios for assisted living, and 14 studios for hospice care. Rates start at $100 a day for assisted living, $120 a day for memory care, and a flat rate of $175 per day for hospice. There may be an additional cost for care for those who reside in assisted-living and memory-care cottages. Each cottage holds 14 private studios, a dining room, a kitchen, and a living room area. The staff is specially trained to care for each resident and to make sure that they are not left in their room but invited to join in the community-based activities. The memory-care cottages are fully secure so residents are not at risk of wandering off the campus, though there is a spacious walking area for them to enjoy.

The basic package includes a private studio, housekeeping, meals, and laundry. Nurses are available seven days a week. Marketing Director Leslie Campana told me that “the majority of our residents require some form of assistance. In some cases we have one spouse that lives in our community while the other lives at home. This situation often stems from one spouse needing additional assistance due to memory loss and/or physical challenges. In addition, we provide end-of-life care, with a dedicated cottage to assist the resident and family members that are dealing with a terminal illness. This cottage provides the families with the capability of staying the night in the same room with their loved one, having celebration-of-life meals, and spending quality time in the dining room and/or living room areas”.

Aegis Living is based in Redmond and operates 12 senior living facilities in Washington.

Timber Ridge at Talus

Timber Ridge is a continuing-care retirement community, or CCRC. They also offer life care. This means that, should the need arise, residents have access to a lifetime of on-site care, including emergency assistance, recuperative care, assisted living, and long-term nursing care. The advanced levels of care are provided in the Briarwood Health Center. Regardless of the services required, the residents continue to pay only their set monthly fee. Timber Ridge is one of only three life-care facilities in Washington.

New residents must be 62 or older and able to live independently when they move in. The entrance fees start at $315,000 and are 80 percent refundable, and the monthly service fees, which cover all of the services and amenities, start at $2,786.

Construction of Timber Ridge adhered to nationally established “green” building standards, making it the first senior living community in the nation to be awarded Silver LEED certification.

Timber Ridge is located on an east-facing hill below the Talus development. The first phase contains 184 residential units. Phase two of construction will add another 115 units, as well as an aquatic center with a heated indoor pool, an expanded fitness center, and additional dining and group activity spaces. The one- or two-bedroom homes are available in a variety of floor plans. All residences come with kitchens, washer/dryers, and quality interior finishes. Meals can be taken in the dining room or the lounge, or even freshly prepared and delivered to the residence.

This very attractive facility currently provides a creative-arts studio, woodworking shop, library, putting green, bocce ball court, raised gardening areas, business center, salon, and inviting outdoor terraces with views toward the Cascade Mountains.

For the many residents with cars, covered and secure parking is provided. Because these are individual homes, residents are able to bring their pets.

Executive Director Scott Doherty said, “The most commonly heard comment we hear from new residents is ‘I wish I had moved in earlier.’ ”

The owner and developer of Timber Ridge is Life Care Services, which has been in business for more than 40 years and operates 80 facilities around the country.

Three lessons learned

Plan early. Most people wait too long to make a move. Waiting limits one’s options. Bellewood, Timber Ridge, and University House are all wonderful choices for independent adults, allowing them to be as active as they choose to be. Once dementia sets in or people need assisted-living help, these facilities are no longer an option.

Assess the likely needs for care. In selecting a place to move, first look at people’s needs over the prior 12 months and make a selection based on what their likely needs will be 12 months from now. This forward thinking will help in selecting a facility that will work well for current and near-term care requirements and avoid the need to make several moves. Moving is the second most stressful event for seniors just after the loss of a spouse.

Strive for independence. Classes focused on physical, mental, and emotional health offered at each facility are not just time fillers; they have the intent of helping each resident regain or retain physical strength and mental acuity. Often new residents have been living alone in relative isolation and have declined in strength and mental sharpness. The classes and the socialization help them to become more independent. For many, the move to a correctly selected facility gives them more independence than they had while living at home. Every year lived with as much independence as possible is a victory.