Overview of Foundation House at Northgate with Lynn Creasy

*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 everyone to answers for elders radio. And we are back with a brand new guest, a lady by the name of Lynn Creasy, and Lynn is with foundation house at northgate. Lynn, welcome to the program thank you for having me. You know, I’ve heard about foundation, Foundation House several times and the thing that’s really amazing is our wonderful Daphne Davis, who are listeners know really well, just helped some seniors move in there of a resident movements community and it was so thrilled with your community and so if daphnely singing your praises, I knew that we had to have you on. So Lynn, tell us a little bit about foundation house, like where you guys are located in North Cape, but tell us a little bit about your community. Well. Thank you. We are located at Northgate area and we’re an independent living and an assisted living community and I would like to stress that we are a community. A lot of people use the word facility and I think that it’s really important to use community because we are a community of a hundred and four units of people anywhere, anyone above sixty five, and we are independent living primarily, very active, and we do that. We do assist assisted living as well well. And you know the really thing I mean right now, this month of April, we’re talking about aging in place and one of the great things about being in a community. A lot of seniors, you know, they’re in a house too big for them right and they need to downsize and they don’t necessarily know what to do and they don’t want to burden their kids. This is a wonderful option for a senior to downsize to an independent apartment, kind of learned, to get ingratiated to the community. As their and as their needs progress, you guys are there to take care of them, which is awesome. Yes, so tell me a little bit about how long how long is foundation house been around? Foundation House has been around for over twenty two years and one of the thing that makes us special is that we are a not for profit, but we we were founded on the foundation at foundation of educators. Retired educators filled the building initially. We are open to everyone at this point and that’s one of the things that makes us special. Hmmm, so obviously there’s a real, I would say probably a wonderful active environment there and, in other words, if you’re founded by education principles, there’s a lot of diversity, I’m sure, and a lot of opportunities to learn and read and grow and, yes, and experience, I would imagine. Yes, our activities are very diverse. We try to hit every corner and we encourage the residents to suggest with some things that they would like to do as well. But we are very active both in the community as well as out in fact, today was the one of the cool outings. was going to tap root theater and watching your it all. Okay, very cool. Yeah, so, you know, that’s something my mother would have lived yeah, I love Tapperot so. So you guys basically obviously have all kinds of activities out there. So in the independent explain to our listeners what’s the difference between? I mean we talked about a little bit, but what’s the difference between independent and how does a senior bridge into assist a living and what does that look like to an outside person if they’re coming to your community? Well, if you’re thinking about independent living, first I think a real thing to think about is when you’re in your own home and you have so many things to do. You need to do take care of your housekeeping, you need to cook, you need to Mow your lawn or take care of a garden and as you age those things follow the wayside or you really don’t want to do those things. So when you come into independent living, those things actually are being done for you. So, for instance, we offer breakfast and dinner completely served restaurant style dining by chef Steve. He’s been there for twenty two years as employee number one. Wow, we have weekly housekeeping and every so no, no housekeeping, folks. Yeah, no housekeeping, with the exception of you know, if you’re independent, you still have there’s a washer and dryer in every unit. Yeah, so you can do your own. That’s good. Laundry, that’s good. And then as you bridge into assisted living, what we do is we really customize the program and make it to fit the resident and what they need, so they don’t have to pay if they only need one help with one or two eight LS. They’re not having to pay an exorbitant amount of money correct to pay for assisted living currents is a lot of times what’s happens with communities is yes, and it’s and it’s often built up in fee after fee after fee. We have one price that is customized to that resident and what they need and another independent. Another cool thing is that it’s by month. So let’s say someone needs to rehab for three to six months, maybe coming out of hip surgery, for example, they can actually be hon assisted living for maybe three months. Sure, go back and then to the attend independent yeah. So one of the things I think is interesting about foundation houses. You guys are not for profit. How does that benefit people? Well, part of it is a very feel good space, both for the employees, myself that I work there, but also for the for the residents coming in. You know, don’t like a person at the top living in a mansion and bringing all the money off of the backs of sears. That’s right. So that money goes back into the community then, yes, and it goes back into improving the lives of our residents. And I’m assuming your rates probably are a little more competitive than a lot of other communities. We do have competitive rates, yes, and on on average our units are typically a little bit larger than a lot of the units. That’s amazing. That’s awesome. More storage space. Uh Huh, Uh Huh. That’s awesome. So we are talking again to Lynn creasy, and then you are the community relations director for Foundation House and we’re exactly. I know you guys are in Northgate, but where are you located exactly? What’s the add we are at one one three hundred, one third avenue northeast in Seattle and that’s it’s a there’s a dead end street half a block north of the target. So it’s a nice quiet street and we’re in a prime location for the mall target in this northgate community center, in the library and restaurants and restaurants, grocery stores and easy on off the freeway for people to visit and everything like that, which is and the New Light Rail going in as right there. Yes, that’s right. I passed by that all the time. So tell us a little bit about what’s your ideal resident like? What if I’m in resident, what’s the best type of fit for your community? I would say a perfect fit for us would be someone who is active, who is engaging, someone who really likes to socialize. We have a pretty social group. Of course you’d be in your own apartment so you can you can have this have I must, you will see his you want. Yeah, but I would say as far as location, a lot of our residents come from the northeast side. They’re familiar with the area and you and you’re so close to like shoreline and you know Ballard and are and those areas as well, which is really exciting as well, I think too. Yeah, I think it’s a it’s a good, a great step for someone who is downsizing, both from maybe their house they’ve lived in for sixty years. Another example would be someone who’s in a Condo and they’ve already downsized but they really want to be part of a community and be more active and it would be a good and Duke. Except pets. We do not. In fact I think we are one of the few that do not, and a lot of our residents appreciates that. Appreciate that fight. We also have no smoking on our okay property. Okay, well, that’s good too. Good to know. Absolutely. And so obviously you know there’s different ways of funding. Let’s talk a little bit about how do you pay for retirement living? Obviously there’s private pay is one side of it, but there’s other types of benefit programs that are out there and what programs do you accept and what don’t you accept? That’s that’s a very good question. For actually, even though our rates we are our rates are very competitive, we are a private pay community, so we don’t accept Medicaid, etc. But we do have some residents who take advantage of some long term care programs of their own as well as and that’s where assisted living only not for the rent. We want to make sure that that’s, yes, conveyed to our listeners. yeses. So veterans programs as well, I’ll as veterans and long term care programs. And for those residents that may earn, those residents, those listeners out there that may not know, if your loved ones was in the military and live and actually spent only three days of wartime, that’s all they had to have been in they would qualify for what we call aid and attendance benefits, and this can be a significant amount of money. And the only thing that they have to do to qualify for the aid and attendance benefit is to have, I believed, two of seven Adl’s that they need help with, and that’s our activities of daily living. So if you know if there’s need of assisted living of some sort. If they need help and dressing or bathing or grooming or toileting or anything like that. Those benefits are there available for your loved one. So make sure that if there’s there’s information, I’m sure you guys have can lead them in the right families in the resist. Thank you for mentioning that. Yeah, so that’s that’s something that I know that we definitely want to make sure that people know that they were a lot of people do not yeah about that. So thanks lean. How do we reach you and how do we get in contact with foundation house? Well, as we have several different ways, but primarily our website is full of information and that website is Foundation House N G, which stands for now northgatecom as well as you can call at any time and schedule a tour come by for a complementary meal. That phone number is two thousand and six, three hundred and six, one, two, seven, five eight. And I want to really put in a really quick thing. You guys are doing a move management seminar on April twenty five from two to three, and this is a great opportunity for people to get kind of introduced to your community and help them with the downsizing process. So thanks for putting those kinds of seminars. Yeah, I’d like to tell you a little bit more about it. It’s the first of US nine month series and it’s managing your move with a HB move management and also a very wellknown realtor to help people downsize, and it’s completely free. Thanks so much, Lynn, for being on the show today. All Right, thanks for having me answers for elders radio show with Susan Newman. Hopes you found this podcast useful in your journey of navigating senior care. Check out more podcast 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