Exploring Senior Living with MBK Senior Living

*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.

Welcome to answers for elders radio everyone, and we are rounding out this weekend with a group of amazing individuals that we have recently come to know from M B K senior living. We have a gentleman by the name of Jim purpot and he is, for out, the director of sales and marketing of island house in Bellevue. We have Tam Katson, who is a director of sales and marketing for Mount Lake Terris Plaza senior living and, of course, Katie McConnell. She’s the director of sales and marketing for northgate laws of senior leaving and mbk is an amazing organization that we want to talk to everyone here about. You know, what is senior living and people talk about they have all kinds of perceptions and we have a group of individuals here that are going to share a lot about that today. So welcome everyone to the program thank you. Thank you. Yeah, so I’m going to start off, obviously with Katie, because you gave me a little bit of a story about your background and you know, you’ve grown up in this industry and you’ve kind of seen the industry, you know, senior care, evolve and you know from where what the average perception is out there in the community compared to what it is today. What kinds of, you know, I guess, misconceptions does the average individual have about senior living? We often interact with folks who have such an antiquated idea of the services we offer. We have seniors who are terrified to walk through our front door because they’re afraid this is an environment that’s going to rip away their freedoms, when in reality, over the past especially two decades, our industry has evolved. It is become an industry that is no longer based upon providing bare necessities to live. It is based upon a customer service industry that is designed to create an environment in which you can choose how you live and you can truly live, not just exist. One of the things I think that’s really important about that is how many times have I gone into a senior living community with a friend of mine? Or you know, we do a program with the Seahawks, and so we’ll have some of our seahawks legends come to the communities and they’ll go, you know, I could live here and I sit there and think, well, of course you could, because it’s an amazing opportunity for a senior to be, you know, is independent, is they need to be, and also so, as you know, they age, there’s a there’s an opportunity for them, obviously, to have the kind of care that they need and they don’t have to go anywhere. And you know, Jim, you’ve talked a little bit about your background and being with the with the company and being another care because you took care of your father, did you not? Yes, my father. When my mother passed away a number of years ago, my dad was still continuing to live in his home in Chicago area, which is where I’m from, and I was I’m an only child, so the responsibility kind of fall on me, and he was diagnosed with early stage dementia at that point. All Wow, so it was apparent to me that it wasn’t a safe environment for him to be in and my father, as we’ve alluded to before, had this antiquated idea of senior living, kind of fighting me tooth and nail on the idea, but I finally convinced him to come out and try it here in the Seattle area, live close to my parents, to where my wife and I live, and he came out for four months kind of hesitant. So at least he was a little concerned about losing his independence, as Katie mentioned, but after four months living in the community he found that it was actually enjoyable for him. He made friends, it took a lot of the clutter out of his life. So we were able to provide he was able to have the services provided that he needed it at that point and it took also a big burden off of my shoulders too, because while we all want to do the best for our parents, we’re not always the best people that can provide that kind of care for them. So that’s where I refer to the experts well. And you know, one of the things that I’m excited about as we close out the whole you know, month of February of Health and wellness, we are going to be looking forward in the month of March to support families, you know, to support people, and I know Tam you were here. I am really excited because I’m going to be visiting your facility in Mount like terrorist and just talking to families that are trying to navigate senior care. So first of all I want to say thank you for inviting answers for elders in us to be there. But second of all, tell me a little bit about what makes mbk unique in that senior living world. That’s a great question and I think you know, for us who work for the company, we’re all going to have an individual perspective right on what brought us in, what attracted us. I know for myself, and there’s there really is a laundry list of great aspects to this company were very fortunate to work for. And what attructed me was actually the mind body connection aspect, which deals with you know, we actually you have meditation, you know. So we have meditation available now. Not a lot of our seniors have tried that before, but we want to give them the opportunity because the studies have shown such great increase in thriving regards to that connection of the mind in the body, of the heart right and regards to love life a little more fully and engaging right now all those pieces of integrity that we walk in with that we are afraid to lose, but we re engage. So the meditation helps. We also have chair yoga and we do things a little differently. That helps everyone connecting get I mentioned before well, and I think too. You know, when you’re talking about that mind body connection, a lot of times our parents is, you know, the older generation as we call them, are, you know, our our our older adults really aren’t necessarily in tune with that philosophy, that haven’t grown up in that world, and to be introduced to that, I can only imagine what an amazing transformation it can be in living in a kind of environment that really supports that side. And you know it. Have you found that to be the case, Katie? We see these amazing transformations. I have folks come in and I ask them questions like what is your mom and joy and I get responses like well, she watches a lot of spoperas these days, or she stays home with her dogs hug and then six months down the road they visit their mother and she’s Jing a Cheryoga class with her friends and doesn’t have time to stop and have coffee with them because then she’s had it out shopping into the casino. I love. Isn’t that great? And when you think about to be able to have those choices, and you know, one of the things that I know about senior living that a lot of people out there don’t know is you know, there’s many options out there, for sure, those of us that are out there, but we all might have a misconception of what that is. And Jim us a little bit about like if I’m still living, you know, I don’t necessarily need care at this point, but I’m still independent to make the choice to go into a senior living and living independently. How does that benefit me? Well, it takes the challenges out of your life going forward. What it really does in our case, in our community in Mercer Island, we have seventy nine apartments. We have about eighty five residents. Although we offer assisted living services, there’s really about only about twenty three or twenty five of the residents are actually receiving care services from so the independence that they’re concerned about, they can continue to live in that lifestyle in our community with the comfort knowing that as they age in place and begin to need some services, whether that might be some shower assistance, dressing assistance, things of that nature, those services are there to be provided if, in one they need them and see that is so valuable. We are here talking to Jim and Tam and Katie from mbk senior living. And before we continue with our conversation, Jim, I’m going to ask each one of you where you’re located and which one of your communities. So, Jim, tell us about a little bit where you’re located. Well, we are located right in the heart of Mercer Island, the village North village of Mercer Island. I think most people there will know where that QFC is located. We’re, yes, directly in back of the QC. So we’re really that we have the belcation and all of Mercer Island walk out the front door right in the middle of the village. Awesome. And Tam, tell us about your location. are locations a little different. So we are up in Mount Lake ters itself, which is right off the I five corridor, right in between shoreline and the lynnw Edmonds area, and also like Forest Park. So we’re actually nestled in more of a neighborhood community across from the Public Library and down the street from the Va Park, which is great, wonderful. And Katie, I am at Gate Plaza and we are located right in the bus all. If you want a busy neighborhood, we have it for you. You can get to anything you want, you gotta minute. Well, you’ve got a light rail going in near you, girl, I do. You can come, stay or travel all you want, you know, and that’s really amazing too, because having the opportunity to, you know, be half a choice of what type of neighborhood do you want? It’s really a nice way because we obviously know there’s no cookie cutter adults out there and I and one of the things that I know is a community like yours, nobody gets cookie cutdared, which is great. You know, it’s all about choices. And the other thing, Tam you know you have talked about you do community events as well. Tell us a little bit about those. Well, we all tend to do a lot of community events. We want to engage the public so that we can help educate them. I think that’s probably, as we mentioned before, a lot of folks in the public have a very and equated idea of what life used to look like or what their parents parents went through and they aged, and so it’s really important for us to open our doors. Justin’s our home, we’re going to open that up to the public. We do educational events. We’ve got this great event coming up with you which we’ll talk about. And in addition, we do fun things. We do a lot of music and picnics and and, you know, themed events, so we can invite everyone into come and enjoy and see really what we’re all about. That’s wonderful and and also, you know, really understanding that, you know, the world’s your oyster when you’re in a community and you know, for for those of us that have taken care of senior loved ones, one of the things that I always tell families is that you know, when you’re independent as a senior and you’re able to make those choice, you know, those decisions on your own about your later life, that’s when you have a choice. A lot of times families they ignore this piece and then they end up, you know, mom’s in the hospital with a broken hip. She’s going to Rehab and next thing you know, mom has to go to assist living. And guess what, mom doesn’t have a choice anymore. It’s about all about she becomes in, you know, in the effect of the situation and you know, having the ability to say you know what number one. What I’m noticing with seniors, which is really exciting, as I’m seeing seniors really start to make choices for their own lives which are really amazing in their earlier, you know, years, and that’s an exciting thing. So I want to thank each and every one of you for being on the program today. Thank you, sir. Thank you for having US