96.5 F
San Fernando
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Assisted Living Incorporates Lifestyle Options

Assisted living facilities and senior residences are making every effort to offer residents all their medical and lifestyle needs met on one site. Motion Picture Television Fund in Woodland Hills, No. 4 on the Business Journal Assisted Living Facilities list, recently move toward an “all inclusive” campus that mixes lifestyle and memory care services through the addition of Wise Adult Day Services Center on its Wasserman Campus. See list page 16 The center is the result of a two-year collaboration between the fund and Santa Monica-based Wise and Healthy Aging, a care-giving organization with a special focus on Alzheimer’s patients. Activities and services include games to boost memory, socializing, music therapy and exercise like chair yoga. “We are excited to bring this vital program to our Woodland Hills campus, and to join with Wise and Healthy Aging in offering expanded services to our entertainment community, our employees and to older adults in the greater Woodland Hills community,” Bob Beitcher, chief executive of the Motion Picture Television Fund, said in a previous statement to the Business Journal. University Village Thousand Oaks, No. 1 on the Business Journal’s list, also seeks to meld medical and lifestyle needs on one campus for its residents, who are classified into two categories. Those in residential living do not need constant medical care, while those in long-term care, at an on-campus facility called Oakview, require care. “Here, you move in with the intention of living in independent living for some time and then as time goes by, if you need this kind of assistance, it’s there for you,” said Ernie Sandlin, marketing director of University Village. “For people, it is a plan rather than something they need today. We think it’s a big advantage to be in an all-inclusive type of community where your family is not having to help you navigate from your home to assisted living, and from assisted living to memory care, and from memory care to skilled nursing. These types of centers are all stand-alone, usually. You have it all on one 65-acre campus.” Residents can choose between one-, two-, or three-bedroom apartments, or a two- or three-bedroom villa. University Village has 72 villas, 48 condos and 247 apartments. Oakview has 32 assisted living apartments, 16 memory care apartments and 48 nursing care beds. By comparison, Oakmont of Santa Clarita, an 87,170-square-foot facility on 8 acres, is No. 45 on the Business Journal’s list of assisted living facilities in the Valley. The location boasts 55 assisted living apartment homes and 31 memory care units. Oakmont’s facilities aim to balance lifestyle and medical needs too, but with in-house movie theaters, a salon, walking paths, resident gardens and restaurant-style dining mixed with a memory care program. Educational amenities For University Village residents, a lifestyle quirk unique to the campus stems from its partnership with California Lutheran University – the business purchased 65 acres from the college in 2007. Under the partnership, residents are encouraged to attend on-site courses taught by California Lutheran faculty; residents also can go to the Thousand Oaks school as volunteers for programs like Communication Café, where 15 to 20 residents have candid conversations with international students. “That has been going on for a few years,” Sandlin said. “Not only do we have the activity on our campus, but we have opportunity off-campus for our residents to continue to feel connected to the greater community and the greater world.” On the medical side, University Village takes a very self-contained approach, encouraging residents to still visit their family doctors if needed while knowing long-term care is available on site. “The long-term care is included in their program,” said Sandlin. “They don’t pay extra for long-term care. It’s a long-term plan, whereas a standalone assisted living community is for folks who previously were living in their house but now have reached a point where they need assistance with activities of daily living.” Sandlin uses the example of a hip replacement for one of its residents, who may come back from the hospital and opt for long-term care at Oakview, if acute treatment is needed, and then either move back to the residential living or stay at Oakview. The Business Journal also publishes a Skilled Nursing Facilities list on page 20, with Wellspring Post-Acute Center in Lancaster ranking No. 1.

Featured Articles

Related Articles