Kelley Smith at CarePartners Senior Living joins Suzanne to talk about CarePartners memory care and their Bonded Pairs program, which keeps spouses together at a senior living community.
Kelley talked about CarePartners cottages: “The cottages has been such a winner from the very beginning, and it allows residents autonomy because they each live in a little house — they have their own little bedroom, everybody has a bathroom, there’s a common area, a kitchen, and usually they’ve got cookies or bread or something baking to make it smell good all the time. And residents have snacks in the refrigerator. They can go out to a beautiful, secure courtyard and enjoy being out in our beautiful weather. We have umbrella areas and undercover areas for them to sit outside and enjoy beautiful things. And they can visit other cottages, so if they have a friend that lives across the street, they can go visit, like a little village. But it works. It works, because they get to be outside, they get to they get to move. Activities have also been brought in. You want it to feel for them like the little house they used to live in. It’s just it’s kind of neat to have, like you know, a barbecue or something going on and have all the rest of the neighbors and out in the courtyards and enjoying their neighborhood.”
Regarding the memory care Bonded Pairs program, this is for any couple, where they’re safe together. “Bonded Pairs doesn’t have to be a married couple. It can be any bonded pair. We’ve had a mother and daughter team. Our goal is to keep them together as long as possible. We’ll come into the room providing care. You know, we can do all the same things for that loved one that we do in memory care. Maybe there’s time for their haircut, and they gotta go run by the bank, but she’s just not having a bad day. They can take mom up to memory care. She can hang out with us for a couple of hours while he runs his errand he can’t come back and pick her up. So it works out really well. But at night, you know when when they’re going to sleep, and she’s right tucked in next to him and he’s not worried about what’s happening upstairs, and she’s not scared because she’s alone.”
They purchased The Arbor in Bremerton, Washington and Lynden Manor in Whatcom County, Washington. “We’ve already gotten the chance to make some improvements at Lynden Manor. Not that it needed a lot, but sometimes when you’ve been in a building for a long time, you don’t see things. We’ve got a lot of new things planned. We just did a really fun party for the residents, with a petting zoo, a band, and good food. The Seahawks Legends got to come visit. But it’s gorgeous and it has independent, assisted living, and memory here all right there on this gorgeous ground. And again they seem like all of other CarePartners properties. They do that that beautiful spend down. You don’t have to worry about, what am I gonna do if I run out of money? You just stay, have a great life, have fun. It’s a beautiful community.”
CarePartners has also expanded into Arizona with three communities. “We’re building in Tuson. There’s Cottage Lane at Vineyard Park Surprise, Arizona. They don’t use the phrase independent living in Arizona, it’s more advanced care for assisted living, and then memory care, with all three in a one-story building that’s really easy to navigate. The building is fantastic, again, great care team, beautiful people. The rooms are amazing. I’d live there, it’s fantastic.”
Learn more at their website at CarePartners Senior Living.
