Senior Housing Options, Memory Care Cottages

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following podcast is provided by care partners living and answers for elders radio. Welcome to answers for elder’s radio everyone, and we are very excited to have as our first guest today Jill Martinez, who is a director of community relations for care partners living. Jill, welcome to the program thank you. I’m glad to be here. We have been talking about housing options and on the show this month and I’ll there’s a lot of things that you know, goes into the decision of if you have a loved one. And of course, the other side of it is the sad parties is that there’s a been a huge increase of Alzheimer’s and dementia, especially in our segment of the pop world. You know, I heard a statistic not too long ago, Jill, isn’t it? Like they say they predict one out of every three seniors will pass away from really conditions related to Alzheimer’s and dementia. Is something like that? Yes, dementia, I would say, probably can hit ninety percent of the population in some form, whether it’s Alzheimer’s or a different form of dementia that might affect a different part of the brain. Right, right, and I know, you know it’s hard for families today that struggle with a loved one because it’s like, you know, the person that they knew before he is kind of gone and starts to deteriorate away. And and I know also that to care for a loved one, if you’re trying to do that on your own, cast to be probably the one of the most overwhelming experiences in the world. It is, and that’s why, with care partners, we really try to help the person through that process of determining when it is maybe time to consider memory care or moving their loved one into a retirement community, because there really are some key factors to pay attention to sure. So we really try to help the person go through that process and help them decide when it’s the right time to move. Right. Here’s the thing that’s really important to to talk to our listeners about. No one in the industry wants to move your parent into a facility, no matter what is, until they’re ready. I think that’s where’s a lot of families that will if I talk to care partners and if I talk to and go visit a community, they’re going to pressure me to my parent moved in and that is absolutely not the case. And you know I always say that on the air, that you know, anybody in the industry knows that that’s the last thing you want to do is for somebody and being something that they don’t want to do. And and we’re excited because being a part, you know, and now having care care partners is our wonderful sponsor for today’s program is to learn a little bit about your cottages, which our memory care facilities. And when we say memory care, tell us a little bit just an overview of what is what happens inside your cottages. I love the name. So the cottages really are something you’re only going to find at care partners. When that when they build a new cottage, they build it’s a specific way and for specific reasons. So we call it the cottages because we actually have four separate houses within in the property and a large courtyard in the middle, and so the courtyard gives the residents the ability to come out into the sunshine, have a barbecue, sit outside just like they would when they lived in their own home. If they want to go into another cottage visit somebody in that other cottage, they can do that. They’re not restricted to one certain area. So that’s something to keep in mind. With people with dementia’s sometimes they have the need to to walk, exercise, exert some energy here and so the cottages are set up to allow that. And and you know, talking about that. What are some of the warning sides that a family might want to say? You know, maybe my parent are my loved one might be ready for this stage. Definitely something to consider is safety. That’s usually the number one situation that arises. Somebody is no longer safe to be home. Maybe the caregiver doesn’t feel comfortable leaving them alone anymore. So there might be a fear that someone might walk out the front door not come back. Share out, you know, there’s a wander risk situation, but also caregiver burnout is a huge situation with caregivers and knowing when it’s time to maybe allow someone else to take over that responsibility. So as a caregiver, then you have that time for your own family, share time for yourself well, and I always go back, I write about this in my book. Whenever the care of someone else is more than what you’re able to balance, to take care of yourself, no matter what that is, then it’s time to seek other options. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t be there for your loved one, or, you know, to a certain degree. But, like you’re talking about, if you feel that you if you walk out of a room or walk out of your loved one’s house and all of a sudden that thought goes through, I hope they’ll be okay, or I’m not sure that this is going to be a good idea. It’s time to make some changes, and that’s the thing that I think so many families here today are concerned about. Maybe some some promises they might have given to their loved one that I will never quote unquote, put you in a home when an actuality. We need to revisit what those promises are, because, on the other hand, you know, you can say to a child, I’m promise you, I’ll never, you know, discipline you, but if the child does something bad, you want to discipline them. The point in the matter being is there’s different aspects and you’re going to do whatever you can, is their loved one, to make sure that they’re safe, and that’s the key. I think that we have to look at exactly and that’s why we also encourage as an option at the cottages if you’re just not quite sure, you have a hard time letting go. We have a respite program as well. That’s wonderful. So we are talking to the wonderful Jill Martinez from care partners living. Still, you are on the director of community outreach and what is your role with the care partners? So I handle a lot of people’s individual questions that they call their initial seeking of what might be the right community for them. I can answer questions about the cottages. Are assisted living community? Are Bonded Pairs Program at the cottages? What’s that? That is what we offer at the Mount Lake terrace cottage and what that entails is a program where we allow couples to live together despite what is going on with their mental and physical situation. So they can literally still live together in the same apartment. Yet once spouse can receive the memory care services they need, either utilizing the memory care section or staying in the apartment with her spouse for as long as possible. That’s so important for balls. You know, that’s one of the things I’ve heard is oftentimes that facilities will not allow that, and so you’re kind of in a situation where you’re separated for your loved one is unique. Yes, yes, so tell me a little bit about respect. You were talking about that just before we stopped. Okay, so again, our respite program is a bit unique in the fact that we don’t have a minimum stay requirement. So if a person wants to maybe consider memory cares and option, try it out, or maybe a spouse is going in for surgery or on vacation, they can bring their loved one into one of our cottages and they can stay for a maximum of thirty days under what we call our respite program and explain define for our users. Our Listeners? What is a respite mean? Respite stay? So when a person comes into one of the cottages under the respite program they are still going to receive all the same amenities, the same care, everything that a resident who has moved into the cottage would receive. So there is no difference. But it’s giving the resident the opportunity to see how they like it, share see the family, can see how they might like the environment and to give the family a little bit of a break. So it’s the same thing as a person actually moving into the community, but it’s for a shorter stay well, and that’s think about this. Maybe you know son and daughter that have been taking care of mom and dad have to go on a trip. They’re going to go on a vacation. You don’t know necessarily what to do to take care of your loved one. So this is a great opportunity to have mom or dad experience something like this. And I also think it’s good. I always tell people try it out, you know, see if you can go spend a few days to see what you think. Do you like the food? Do you like you know that lifestyle, and the great thing about that is you guys get to know a little bit about them too, which I think is wonderful. Exactly, and we really don’t need much notice and somebody can call us a couple days ahead of time and we can get the ball rolling. There is some physician paperwork that we would need, but other than that we can get somebody moved into the cottage very quickly under rest. Wow. So now you have you oversee the quote unquote, cottages. How many cottages do you have in greater puget sound and what areas are they located in? We have the total of seven cottages. All the way down from lacy. One at university place too. Comma, Yep, we’re actually building one in Renton. We have one at Edgewood, AH WELIP areas had a new or when it is newer? Yes, and then we also have the cottages at Mount Lake Terrace, is part of our assisted living community. We have cottages Mill Creek and then the cottages at Marysville. Wonderful, wonderful. And and just a little bit about how, you know what. What would a family do if they were to call in? What would they experience? Did they take a tour? Tell it, tell us a little bit about what they can except if they were to call me directly. I’m just going to get a little bit of information in terms of what they’re looking for, location, what might be important to them, their finances, because we also have the largest Medicaid contract in the state of Washington. That’s important. Yes, so I’ll kind of consider those situations and then we’ll set up a time just to come take a look at the community. There’s absolutely no obligation. We can do a complementary assessment and then if everything seems to be like it’s going to be a go, then they can move in. Anytime. So how do we reach you? How do people are to the best way to reach US would be to get on our website at www.carepartnersliving.com, and there’s also a phone number that will show up on the website and that’s the main number to call in the film, the preceding podcast which provided by care partners living and answers for elders radio. To contact care partners living, go to carepartnersliving.com.