Discover Senior Living

Mental health therapist Seth Hutchins talks about how Era Living retirement communities embrace new residents, helping them adjust to the transition so they can make new connections and thrive.

Suzanne Newman joins Kelley Smith at CarePartners Senior Living to talk about to talk about CarePartners' history and core values.

Amanda Krueger joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders podcast to talk about senior living, recorded on site at Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Washington. Amanda is Vice President of Health Services, and oversees the health and care provided at Chateau Retirement Communities.

The term 'retirement community' covers a lot of different types of options, some with care, some without care. Joan Rettmann from Transforming Age joins Suzanne to talk about what they all mean.

Whether regarding skilled care, skilled nursing, or memory care, especially during the pandemic myths have persisted about senior living. In this hour, Kelley talks about myths heard all the time about senior care. We remember great-grandma or great-grandpa being in nursing homes, which weren't pleasant places. They don't exist any more — skilled nursing has taken over, and it doesn't look the same as it did even five or ten years ago. If you don't know anybody in assisted living, if you've never been to an assisted living facility, you don't know what actually happens. Skilled nursing now is more like a rehab center that need 24-hour care not appropriate for a hospital setting. People don't realize that things like therapy dog visits and music therapy are available, providing a quality of life — they don't even know that it exists.

Brittany Fleshman joins Suzanne to talk about MorningStar Senior Living's foundational vision and mission. Their core values of love, honesty, kindness, goodness, fairness, and respect show up in everything they do. Their three principles are to honor God in their business practices and relationships, to invest generously in the team's ability to serve well, and to value all seniors as gifted and contributing individuals.

Tracey Harvey from Cadence Living joins Suzanne Newman to talk about a dynamic, new senior living community soon to open in Kent, Washington. Tracey is Regional Vice President of Marketing & Strategic Planning, Northwest for Cadence at Kent-Meridian. Think about all of the things you do in a day, whether it's cleaning the house, cooking, driving to the store, shopping, planning paying bills. How many hours does that take each week? If you didn't have to do those things, how would it improve the quality of your life?

Suzanne joins direct of nursing Melanie Caoagas for the grand opening weekend at Vineyard Park of Covington in Covington, WA. Melanie oversees the physical health and wellness of the residents: giving them medications, keeping communications with doctors and families, customizing their care plans, and keeping residents informed. The community's assisted living options offer personalized assistance, supportive services and compassionate care in a professionally managed, carefully designed, retirement community setting. It's for seniors who can no longer live on their own, but don’t need 24-hour, complex medical supervision.

Suzanne talks more about the 20 Bill of Rights for senior living residents with Kelley Smith at CarePartners Senior Living, a code of conduct that all senior living communities have to follow by law. Residents have a right to their money, to be involved and have access to what's theirs. If they think their care plan isn't being followed, or a caregiver is being rude, they have a right to speak their mind without fearing repercussions.

Julia Goldie shares success stories as new residents settle into their new circumstances at Era Living's retirement communities.