More About Koelsch Senior Living Communities

*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 is a podcast from a qualified senior care provider part on the answers for elders radio show. And Welcome back everyone to answers for elders radio. Here with Cheryld Dunther and Terry Wilson, both from Kelch communities, and we just spent the last time talking a little bit about just kelches roll with Alzheimer’s dimension kind of. You know, you’ve been around for since one thousand nine hundred and fifty eight, but in Seattle you guys are really new. That’s right, right. Would love to learn a little bit more about your organization. So who would like to share first? I’ll let Terry go, because Cedar Creek and Edmonds is one of our first calch in this area. Yes, purposely belt properties, kelch originally started by purchasing madisone house which is right there across the street from Evergreen Hospital. Huge Remodel was put in with the calch branding to start, and then they purposely built what we call an urban garden setting in Edmonds because there’s not a lot of land in Edmonds. Now they’ve built three stories up with our courtyards in the middle. Uh Huh. So we have lovely courtyards for our residents and their families to participate in. All of our rooms are on the periphery, so our residents they may miss their room mate times but they will find their room, so it really cuts down on frustration. Sure are sure we have game rooms? We have a log cabin, Jack sock cabin with a TV. That’s nice to like in their day and time. Our ladies love to be in our s kitchen and bake cookies in our remodeled stove. It’s brand new but it looks like it was the early S. I love it. And Edmonds. All of our artwork is edmonds properties from the past, like the First Chamber of Commerce Building, and one of our residents at one day said I used to take you fishing there and it was edmonds bracket and the Sun. So it draws, it draws memories. Yeah, Jefferson House will be Kirkland memory right great. A lot of our our local their front court there right now. So we’re going to draw on the history of Kirkland. So we’re really excited to see what that’s going to look like and Judy Kelch works very diligently with her design team who dare Oh, sure. So Judy is the wife of Aaron Kelch, Aaron Kells Iseo and president and CEO, or the baby that lived in the yeah, and not God thing whole. Our boss. All right, he’s, I see, your own president. So Aaron’s parents, Alice and Emmett Kelsh, they they started the calch communities back in one thousand nine hundred and fifty eight in Longview Washington. I mean so it is. It’s an amazing historical story. So we’re really excited to have judy who is all part, who’s part of this family and understands where Alis and Emmett wanted calsh communities to go. She has taken their vision and brought that forward as we’re developing the memory care for for Jefferson has amazing and you know, you had guys have such a unique and and wonderful concept. Really understood best it well it. It’s truly truly amazing because when you think about, you know whoever thought this concept up, it’s like, you know, how many of us don’t necessarily really understand the mindset of somebody that has Alzheimer’s or dementia, and I know my mother had dementia and it’s like to use a cell phone was overwhelming to her. She couldn’t handle that piece. She’s from the greatest generation, born in one thousand nine hundred and twenty five, and you couldn’t get her to use a computer. You couldn’t either get her to use a cell phone. Those things were too scary for her. It was too overwhelming and I learned really quick that, you know, my mom just wasn’t going to go there. It was not something that she could handle. And so to understand the s kitchen concept, it’s all about bringing that familiarity right, comfort level, that feeling of security, and that’s what’s so amazing. So like you for that. But one other thing. We do a lot with his music, because music will take you back to that memory or that moment. Well, I probably love that Frank Sinatra. So we when a resonant moves in, and this is a calch policy, a playlist is created for that particular resident and if they’re having behaviors or need to be settled, we have devices all over the community. We also have the ever sound, which is headsets that are used by our heart of hearing. Well, we discourage ear pieces and hearing AIDS because they’ll get lost. But so we have these wonderful ever sounds to help our residents here participate in activities right, communicate with one another and munch. So that’s another thing that calch has really invested in. We also calches investing in Bellevue with those properties, and that will be Il al and memory care, okay, and blame. What Il to our listeners are Il is independent living, right, and assisted living. That’s the Al. So with assisted living, people will need some so I guess we would say a range of services, right, so anything from having a needing a shower, needing assistance with a shower, teating assistance, with medication Shin, medication minder to supervise somebody is to take a shut because they’re very they’re going to fall right. Hmmm Hm. And you know, assisted living sounds kind of like to the world out there. Sounds like a scary thing. But the beauty of assisted living it’s a wonderful place for your loved one again to feel safe and there’s somebody there that help them with their activities of daily living, which we called ADLS. We’re talking about that and and and certainly, you know they might have need help with dressing or bathing right, brushing their teeth or, you know, medication management is a huge thing. And so all of those things, obviously, with help with mobility and their services there to help them if they need, you know, assistance in walking and things like that, they’ll staff will actually walk with them. Is that great? And the staff is trained so that we really encourage the independence. Yeah, I want to make sure that we are able to maintain independence on the buildings, for instance our purposely built Cedar Creek and Jefferson House. If you drive by or visit, we have the extra high ceilings that were built purposely to allow light. You know, it does rain a lot up here. We have the ambaiat lighting throughout and that helps for vision. I’m positely Menia. It narrows and narrows. So every detail. When Aaron House says on our video on the website that we were purposely built, a lot of detail heart goes into what we get to do now with our residents and their family. Right. It’s a blessing. So we are talking again to Sheryld Gunther and Terry Wilson, both from colch communities, and let’s spelled colch koelscight right. You got it. I got it. So anyway, if you guys have locations, thirteen locations. Did you just the stay to Washington? Yes, so tell us about where they’re located. General Location. Sure. So we have locations in the state of Washington all the way from Edmonds, much in snow, much all the way up, down, down through too long the Washington realm. We have right and Vancouver and we have a number of communities in development currently. So That’s Jefferson House in Kirkland is almost finished construction. We should have a grand opening April twenty three is the date for that. That is so exciting. That is so exciting. You know, one of the things I’ve learned about this industry is like there’s always that. You know, you think something’s going to open and then there’s one more thing that has to happen. But you know, it’s always a good thing because again, there’s no community that totally opens this not a hundred percent ready to take care of your loved one. Now, are you taking reservations for people? And he’s certainly are. Yes, we have been taken deposits for the last year. Yes, for Kirkland, for Jefferson House memory care, and we still have some availability there. So if anybody is interested in leaving a deposit, it’s fully refundable and we would welcome that. If people want to take my take down my phone number early, we can talk to you all. Make sure that we give your infron and Terry. What about you? Do you guys have availability right now? You do. We’ve only been open a year and a half, but I know you’re doing very well. I have heard then the word out about yeah, we we do a great job, you know, and it it fails. We have the privilege right now of having some of Jefferson House residents living with us who were no longer safe to stay at home. Yeah, and what’s going to be great is when Jefferson House opens that will have the same room, the same my own. Nice. So settling in at their new location, which their families live in Kirk you know, it’ll be really wonderful for our residence. That’ll be great and that we be great. There’s the familiarity. And then you have a new location that’s going to be assisted living, an independent living, like you said, in Belleview, and I’ve been to the bare land and I saw right before you had the demolition party. So I got a little bit about that, but that’s going to be up in kind of North Belleview, part arc area, I guess you which call Hidden Valley right area. Correct us over, like hospital. Yeah, yeah, and then we are very excited about our new pu out property. That’s going to be strictly memory care. will be built in a different type of it’s kind a peace shape building and there’s such a huge need in that area. Are Uh Huh that it’ll fill up quick well, and you know, even though you guys have been around since one thousand nine hundred and fifty eight, you know a lot of people have never heard of you up here because your brand new. Like you said, Cedar Creek just opened a year ago. So, to our listeners, couch is an organization that I hope you will absolutely check out because they do an amazing job and certainly for for a family that has questions or anything like that if you have a loved one. And thank you also for just we have about a minute and a half left, your commitment to the Alzheimer’s Association, and I really want to say this is an organization that we all can agree is something that we all get behind and answers for elder’s going to be right next to you in the same areas. So we’re very excited. So we at at the discovery conference. You guys also sponsor the walks and you’re definitely that those will be in the fall. And if you have any questions, please reach out to these two ladies. They are amazing. So I’m going to start with you, Cheryl, sure, at Jefferson House. How do I reach you so you can call me on my cell. It’s four to five, four hundred and two, zero nine and eighty two. And Terry, hi, this is Terry and I’m at Cedar Creek Memory Care in Edmonds, Washington. Four to five, six seven, eight eight zero zero one. So reach out to either sheryl or I, but if you’d like to call our Home Office to be directed to a different area other than Kirkland or the Pew to sound, that number is three hundred and six zero eight, hundred and sixty seven, one hundred and nine zero zero. And if you clinicians out there, if you don’t have your ticket to the Alzheimer’s Discovery Conference, you can get one from us right away. It’s going to be fabulous. Well, we’re very excited and thank you all for what you do and thanks for being on the show today. Sure is our pleasure. Thank you. Thanks. Answers for elders radio show with Susan Newman. Hopes you found this podcast useful in your journey of navigating senior care. Check out more podcasts like this to help you find qualified senior care experts and areas of financial, legal, health and wellness and living options. Learn about our radio show, receive our monthly newsletter, receive promotional discounts and meet our experts by clicking on the banner to join the Senior Advocate Network at answers for elders RADIOCOM. Now there is one place to find the answers for elders