Special Veterans Services with Ken Farmer

*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.

This is a special presentation of Answers for Elders with Careage and welcome back to Answers for Elders radio. We are here again with Ken Farmer, the CEO of Careage, and I am really excited to talk on this very special Veterans Day program about why is an important to offer a special type of service, specialized care for veterans, and I am we’re just so proud to be in partnership with your organization and and seeing the types of ways in which you honor our art military and I’ve being in the backyard of JBLM and you know Fort Lewis. Obviously you guys have a large veterans population and so can tell us a little bit about how that came to be. Well, our our founder and owner of Careage, Jean Len Eighty six years old, was an army officer served in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest and about twenty years ago he was flying over the south sound and he looked down and he saw a partial of land that was close to what was then called Fort Lewis, and he said that’s a nice looking piece of property and he ended up buying it and then about perfect look, twelve years ago we opened patriots landing, a hundred eighty two bad facility with a variety of twenty five and dependent living cottages and and a main building with independent living and assisted living and memory care. And that really means that the cottage is you’re more independent as that correct. That’s right going. We offer independent living, but we assisted living and then, for those who are at a different stage, for a memory care as well. And we are actually planning very soon to build a new additional freestanding, state of the art memory care facilitating right across the street. And but just to stop you, because I think it’s important that we talked to our listeners. You know, oftentimes we’re looking for a place for our senior loved one and you know, you never know. At least for me, I didn’t know the right questions to ask. I didn’t think about because I was in such a crisis of you know, I was one of those eighty percent out there that had to find a place now and I didn’t know the right things to look for. And one of the things that I know is if you if you bring a senior into patriots landing, if they move in as an independent they can stay there the rest of their lives. You guys have the ability to care for them to transitioning hospice. Is that correct? Now we do not do we don’t, we don’t operate hospice, but we of the ability of a hospice agency to come in and care for our for our people there. So yes, you’re right. So I think the one of the most important things in answering that question is where does a person feel comfortable, where do they fit? And so it really comes back to your first point of US and and and veterans, because Patriots landing being where it is and Du Pont and close to joint basic Louis McCord has become the Pacific northwest premier military oriented senior living community. You to fall and it’s a gorgeous facility property campus and and it particularly it’s focused on retired military officers and seniors and their spouses and veterans. But we’re not limited to that. About ninety percent of our roughly two hundred residents are former military and so many people, many former military people, really feel comfortable being around their colleagues and say right, but they actually are glad that we have not exclusively military, and so it’s good next sure, and and so we do things there. When you come on to the on to the campus and when you drive up, the first thing you see is flag poles with the military services flags, the army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, the Coast Guard flags there and you see a beautiful steel sculptured flag. You come in and most people will walk in and what they see immediately in the lobby is looks like a high end hotel lobby. It totally. But the military person will also immediately notice at the top of the stairs the steel sculpture representing each of the military services. It catches their eye. Sure, so it’s those are just some of the little thing else, and one of the things that you talked about is the it’s everybody’s different, but your staff is trained. If somebody wants to be called colonel and they’re part of the Marines and they’ll always be a marine, their staff is recognizes that. They understand that culture. And I mean, I’m obviously that’s correct and you know, it’s learning what what the preferences are and what respect looks like for this person. So I’m Ken, but somebody else might be colonel or or sergeant major or or whatever, and that’s their preference, then that’s the way you do it. And I’m sure this weekend, being it’s a Veterans Day, I and can only imagine that there’s a lot of things going on. There are, and you know, it’s Memorial Day and Veterans Day. We do have special activities and some of those activities are fun and that sort of thing, but some of them are very solemn and honoring what these days are really all about from that military and veteran perspective, right, and understanding the different branches of the veterans and understanding that culture. You know, I think a lot of times we as families forget about that emotional need for our loved one and if you have a loved one that served, I think that that’s, you know, honoring them in the best way is to have them in a place that recognizes that culture and that, you know, that understand has that understanding of really how they identify themselves. That’s that’s right and you know, all of these things are important to making the the retired military or veteran and family member feel particularly welcome there. But you know, that’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is that you give high quality care are and high touch caring right and that’s for anybody abs and that’s what you want to look for in a senior living community. Is the is both the care and the caring, and I’m proud that we do that and all of our communities. And we are again talking to Ken Farmer from CareAge, the CEO CareAge, and specifically we’re talking about Patriots Landing and the services to veterans. Tell us a little bit about you know, if someone were to come and visit Patriots Landing, I’m sure you welcome them. What would they expect if they come to take a look at your properties? Well, first of all will show them the property, the common areas, the we will show them in the rooms and we have a variety of different kinds of rooms and apartments and cottages, and that’s all. You know, and and what their needs are. We will talk about the you know, when you come in, we do an assessment and what are your needs and and develop a care plan, a or a negotiated services agreement, as the state calls that, but most people refer to that. As we’ve had and we have had Greg Mendell speaking of the care age plan that on our show before and he’s wonderful. So, Greg does a wonderful job of that. But we would we would talk about that with the prospective resident and then but we would talk about like them in the dining room. Hey, have a mule with US right. It’s great dining and it’s it’s order from the menu. It’s not pick it to eat in a fine dining restaurant every night. And I’ve had the food there, by the way. It’s quite a good. Is Great at all of our communities. And it’s not pick something a week earlier and oh well, I didn’t want that. Today. It’s sit down and here’s the menu. What would you like today, Miss Newman? And so we’ll talk about the life Richmond and the activities and everything from tours to the pool to jazzercise to that. You know, it’s like living on a cruise ship. Well, it can be. And then, obviously, as Mom or Dad need assistance. Yep, what we call ADLs, activities of daily living. You guys really are integral in that part. Is that correct? That’s correct, and you know, somebody might come in. A couple might come in and both be independent living and one of the couple progresses to a point that they need assisted living. They need help, as you said, with those activities of daily living. One of the wonderful things that we have in at Patriots Landing in particular, is we have a what we call a floating license so that all of our rooms can be coded as assisted living. So when you progress from independent living to assistant living, we don’t have to move you. You don’t have to move to another other fall or other wing. That’s so important. And you know the the husband can remain independent living in this room and you can go to assistant living in this room. Sure we don’t have to move you or separate you, and those things are important right. You’re very important, right, and it’s important really for the self esteem of the the loved one. I know that to have a senior in like a in a wing and all of a sudden you have to leave all that that’s you know, you’re comfortable in your own place. That’s so important. It’s so important now, of course, when you know another transition, when someone gets to a point of memory care. That’s a bit different and and obviously people that are suffering from dementia and they particularly memory care services, need to be in more of a secured environment and that is a different wing and we’re building a new facility. But we also have many times one member of a couple will be in that environment and the other memory of couple will remain independent living or existed living. They can be in and they can property, they can be on the same property and they can eat together and they can do things together. Sure, sure, so can. How do we reach you? Well, we are our places have websites. CareAge, each of the places, Patriots Landing, Patriots Glen, Mission Healthcare, The Lakes at Banning, CareAge Home Halth, all have their websites and I would encourage your listeners to do that. Give us a call and we would love to take you on a tour. Well, we would love to make sure that our listeners do and you can certainly go to PatriotsLanding.com and Veterans Day celebrations are going on this weekend, I’m sure. So if you if you go buy to patriots landing. It’s kind of in the backyard of JBLM and we’re just so proud to have you on the program and happy vacation. Stay well. Thank you very much, Suzanne. It’s wonderful to be here. This has been a special presentation of Answers for Elders with CareAge. For more information for CareAge, go to CareAge.com. That’s CareAge.com.