Susan Strand joins Suzanne to talk about social connections, the robust and unique programming at Era Living. Susan is the Life Enrichment Director of University House Issaquah.
“The fun team” is the group that provides the fun at the community, scheduling daily activities, personal transportation, and more. How do you begin, how do you plan? Era Living has a standard of activities that’s a great place to start, providing mind-body-spirit connection, and Susan meets monthly with her residents to see what they want to do, bounce ideas off of each other. Among the unique things they’ve done included bringing in two live llamas. Music, happy hour with appetizers and celebrations, creative writing classes, tea pairing… They also bring in lecturers such as art history, music history, philosophy series… they learn about rocks, birds, you name it. Something different, always providing new opportunities and new experiences is the goal, as well as learning.
Susan says, “When I provide opportunities for our residents to learn, that’s when I have great attendance and that’s when I have the best feedback. Those could be lectures where they learn something, they could be a super cool outing where we go to a behind the scenes tour, or — this one was good, this was a tea pairing. We went and learned about tea, and they buy with cheese and chocolate. So that’s something different, always providing new opportunities and new experiences as well as learning. We do offer some art classes and a creative writing class. So for those maybe didn’t have the time before or didn’t know they were good at those things or wanted to pursue those, we have those. We also got in contact with a woman who has service llamas, and these huge two huge llamas came right out of her back of her van. And they came in, and our residents asked tons of questions about the llamas. They walked around the room and then the residents took selfies with them. That was unique.”
University House Issaquah, featuring independent living and assisted living, is at 22975 SE Black Nugget Rd, Issaquah, WA. Their activity calendar is posted here. Learn all about Era Living at Answers for Elders or at their website.
Suzanne: And welcome everyone to Answers for Elders Radio Network. And again, we are so honored this week to be having Era Living as part of our program. And I am just so excited about this guest because I know her from a previous time when I took my therapy dog into her community not too long ago, and we went and visited these amazing residents, and they asked a million questions, and this lady makes everything happen with life enrichment at University House in Issaquah, Susan Strand. Welcome to the show.
Susan Strand: Thank you.
Suzanne: You are a busy lady. What is a Life Enrichment Director, first? What does that mean?
Susan Strand: Oh, Life Enrichment Director. We call ourselves “the fun team,” so we’re the group that provides all the fun. W handle everything on our big activity calendar, scheduling all the great stuff for our residents to do every day. We also handle transportation, personal transportation. I have an amazing team of people, and we’re there for our residents, and our ideas, and getting to know them. We’re a big part of their lives and we see them a lot of them every day.
Suzanne: I’m assuming that there’s a lot of planning that goes on to putting together the activities. My question is how, how do you even begin? And how do you structure activities in a senior living community?
Susan Strand: Good question. Era Living has a standard of activities that we like to see on a calendar. So it was well thought out, a lot of people with great experience put together a list of things, and it’s a great place to start. So it’s a list of things that provide mind, body, and spirit connection for all our residents. And then my favorite thing that I do is meet with the residents. I meet with the my residents every month. And so we start with that great base, and then I work with them to see what they want to do. We’re successful when my rooms are full, my bus is full, all of that. So I want to know what they want to do. We have a great meeting every month and bounce ideas off each other and come up with some great stuff.
Suzanne: We were just talking, in our last segment, about when oftentimes when people retire, they don’t necessarily know what their new purpose is gonna be. They don’t know what to do and, you know, I love the fact that you bring them into — I’d like to learn to dance. I’d like to learn to paint, or sing, or have a choral group, or play the piano, or anything like that. You provide those opportunities then? Is that correct?
Susan Strand: That is correct, yes.
Suzanne: So what are the most unique events or parties that you’ve done?
Susan Strand: Probably one of the most unique things we’ve done is bring in live llamas. You mentioned your doodles that you brought in. We also got in contact with a woman who has service llamas, and darn if she didn’t bring in these huge two huge llamas, that came right out of her back of her van. And they came in and our residents asked tons of questions about the llamas, and taking care of the,m and the llamas were so fantastic. And so they stood there, they walked around the room and then the residents took selfies with them. So that was unique. And that day I was like, wow, this job is crazy in there.
Suzanne: I’m sure you’re sitting there saying, how am I gonna top this next, right?
Susan Strand: Exactly.
Suzanne: What other things do you do? Like parties? Tell us, tell us a little bit about that.
Susan Strand: Yeah, definitely. So some of the most popular things would definitely be when I bring in music and we have a happy hour, we bring in appetizers. The residents love that. So it could be celebrating something during the month, a holiday, or it could just be a regular old happy hour where we get everyone together to socialize. So they absolutely love those. And, I’ll say, we really enjoy our lectures. So if I can get a good lecture in, they love that.
Suzanne: And when you say a lecture, like what type of lectures?
Susan Strand: We have all different types of lectures. So, some of our more popular series are art history, music, history. We have a fantastic gentleman who comes in to do a philosophy series. And then we learn about rocks. We learn about birds, you name it, all that good stuff.
Suzanne: That’s the thing, maybe somebody can’t travel anymore. But you talked about history, being able to take a trip through a video tour, or something like that. I’m sure you do a lot of that type of stuff.
Susan Strand: Absolutely. We have folks that come in and talk about travel, and bring in pictures, and then again with the art history lecture, lots of different, almost like a tour through a period of time, and the pieces in the museum. So it’s fantastic.
Suzanne: When you do these lectures and things like that, it gives people something to share together, they learn more, they have more dynamics with each other, and that probably helps to cement, like the happy hours. They probably become really good friends through these activities, do they not? Tell us a little bit about what people will say, they’ve got happy hours?
Susan Strand: Absolutely. Yeah. I think that our activities, whether it’s a lecture or a happy hour or an art class, a painting class, is an opportunity for our residents to connect. And I feel like that’s a big part of our job, to provide purpose and connection for our residents, and that’s what happens. And so then they go to dinner and talk about, Did you hear that lecture? Yeah, I didn’t know that about X Y Z.
Suzanne: I’ve been doing a lot of prep for a new series we’re going to start in June. But one of the things that really fascinates me is on the, the foundation principles of wellness, there needs to be a sense of purpose every day. But it’s also the social wellness, and the mental intellectual wellness. It’s exercising your mind. And so you really cross over into all three of those areas. Are you really mindful when you plan things out that you make sure that you touch those areas?
Susan Strand: Yes, absolutely. And when I talked earlier about our standards at Era Living for our calendar, those are the things that are touched on. So, body, spirit, and spirit being connection, volunteering all kinds of different things. So, yes, I am mindful when I put that calendar together that there’s a wide variety for everyone and we’re hitting on all those things.
Suzanne: I think one of the things that goes into is having meaning in your life, having things that you can look forward to, and those are things that are so important, and you guys talk about lifelong learning, and I think that’s kind of been a theme that you have. I’m assuming you embrace that in your activities, do you not?
Susan Strand: Absolutely. It’s been my experience that when I provide opportunities for our residents to learn, and that can be lots of different ways. But when I provide those opportunities, that’s when I have great attendance and that’s when I have the best feedback. So I’m providing. So those could be obviously lectures where they learn something, they could be a super cool outing where we go to a behind the scenes tour, or — this one was good, this was a tea pairing. We went and learned about tea and they buy with cheese and chocolate. So that’s something different. And always providing new opportunities and new experiences, as well as learning. We do offer some art classes and a creative writing class. So for those maybe didn’t have the time before or didn’t know they were good at those things or wanted to pursue those. We have those.
Suzanne: I remember at the end of my father’s life, he wrote his own story of his life. And I remember being like, wow, there were things that it was in his life that I didn’t even know about. And I’m so, I’m sure a lot of these activities gives families an opportunity to connect with things about their older loved ones and your loved ones that they didn’t even know about, because do you find that that happens a lot?
Susan Strand: Yes, absolutely. Definitely this time in their life, they have the time. And then they also have the perspective now, and understand that that would be meaningful to leave for their loved ones. So that is definitely where creative writing class kind of leads them. And that’s been fantastic. They’ve shared some of that with us and it’s, it’s great.
Suzanne: That is so cool. And you specifically are at University House Issaquah. Can you give us a little bit about your community where you’re located? And how do we find you?
Susan Strand: Yes. We are located in Issaquah and if you’re familiar with Issaquah, we’re located very close to the Fred Meyer Home Depot area. You can locate us on eraliving.com, and check out our University House Issaquah information, our activity calendars, on there. So I definitely encourage you to click on that activity calendar and see what kind of great, great stuff we have.
Suzanne: And Susan, you do independent and assisted living, is that correct?
Susan Strand: That is correct.
Suzanne: And just for everyone that just wants to understand what assisting living is, that’s helping with day to day activities. For example, activities of daily living are medication management, things like that.
Susan Strand: Correct. Yes. So we do have assisted living available. We have a Wellness team that can provide all types of different assistance. So there would be all kinds of different levels, whatever that individual needs. They could meet with our wellness team and we can help them in their same room. So it’s nice in our community if they come in as an independent living individual and do end up needing some assisted living services. They stay right in their same room and can get all of that assistance that they need.
Suzanne: Perfect, Susan, it’s been so great having you on the show, and we’re not done yet, everyone. We’ve got more information on Era Living right after this.
