Vineyard Park Grand Opening Weekend, with Keith Roberts

*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 everyone to a very special episode and for all of you who are listening on the radio right now, this moment Um, I want to have you pay a little bit of extra attention to this show today because we are coming to you from Vineyard Park senior living in Covington, Washington and it is the grand opening weekend of an amazingly beautiful community. And for those of you that maybe in the south end Um thinking about you know if you have a loved one that or you are thinking about, you know where did what to happen, what to happen in your later years and Um, I encourage each and every one of you, if you have a chance, to just swing by and take a few minutes and get some amazing food. I just came into the community and there’s this this incredible buffet set out for everyone and there’s there’s a Hawaiian theme going on and there’s a live band and all kinds of stuff. So it’s a great opportunity and it’s fully air conditioning, air conditions, so cool off, have some fun, have a punch and some food and come and visit and as a result, we are here with Mr Keith Roberts. And Keith, you are the community relations director here at Vineyard Park in Covington and welcome to answers for elder’s radio. I am so honored to be here. Thank you, Susan. I’m so glad to be here. I I gotta be honest with you, I’ve been meaning to come on your show for so long and we’ve been so busy opening up all these new buildings around Washington and I just haven’t. I have never got to have the honor and the privilege. Well, we’re so excited to finally get out of the studio and get off out from under zoom and actually do a live interview, which is very exciting. I was saying to Andrew earlier, who’s here with me from salee media. You know, how do we do these interviews in person anymore because everything’s changed from the pandemic. So I am so thrilled to be here. So thank you for inviting us to be here. And certainly we love care partners and we love all the things that you guys do and and the reason why you do so much is that the quality of life can be so much better for seniors, and especially now. Obviously we’ve been through a pandemic and there’s a lot of times where seniors have sat alone for a long time. Um, they may be hiding certain things about themselves or you don’t necessarily see them as often as you did before. But now it’s the summertime, people are coming together. What are some Keith? I guess the question for you is, what are you finding with families, you know, is they’re just kind of putting their toe in the water, thinking what is the senior living world about? What do you find or some of the questions? Well, I feel like over, you know, maybe the past thirty or forty years, there’s been the stigma around senior living and nursing homes and those sorts of things. And nurse you know, nursing homes are really a thing of the past, even are skilled nursing facilities that are out there today are much, much different than what you would have found fifty years ago. Um, assisted living is, you know, a whole different ball game these days because you have so many amenities. You get the theater, you get the activities, you get the best of everything. Have Care Right, and I mean I’m you know, I’m almost forty and I don’t want to do my laundry every day. I’m almost forty and I don’t want to do cooking anymore. Um. So being able to come into a community, no, you’re going to be cared for, have activities, be able to socialize with folks who are kind of on the same journey as you and, uh, make new friends and and really established close bonds with not only them but the staff as well, and just have a good experience and live with dignity for the rest of your life. Well, you know, it’s interesting because you mentioned something really important that I always talk about, and that is a socialization part. I think we tend to as individuals, think that it’s not a big deal, but it’s a huge deal, especially for those Um you know, if you become depressed, that can escalate symptoms of depression, of you know, of Alzheimer’s Dementia, and that has been clinically proven that there is a direct link from depression Um to dementia, and those are things that can be um completely, uh, you know, fixed by having an active social life and and pulling people out of despair. Mental health is really a lot of ways in which people decline Um. For example, if you’re you know, if you’re depressed, you’re not not necessarily taking your medications on time or even bothering to take them at all. Um, you’re probably not interacting with Um activities and things because you’re wanting to stay home and, you know, hide under the covers or watch TV, you know, a million times. And so it’s finding that outlet to find joy in your life, which is it’s joy is important. It’s very important. And you walk in here in this amazing community and this the lobby, everything is bright and open and they meet you, you know, greet you with a wonderful smiling face and all of the things that happens. It’s a good way to feel like you’re part of a family and I think that’s really what we’ve learned with Um senior living and how that can help. And so, you know, if you’re an older adult or maybe someone you know, you you have an older parent and you’re thinking about, well, what would be the advantages or disadvantages? I don’t even know what senior living is about. Um to come by a facility like this and just have lunch, come and sit and visit with you guys about what it is. Looking an apartment where you can live completely independently and it participate in things that you want to participate in. If you want to have, you know, a meal upstairs in your room, you can do that too in your apartment. It totally gives you the ability and the flexibility to be able to do that. And obviously you’re dining is big nutrition, all the things. Like you said, you don’t want to cook very well, you guys have a chef on site, don’t you? We do. We have an executive chef. Tim Is an amazing Cook. He uses all fresh food, so no UM, nothing that’s already pre made. He uses all fresh ingredients. He’s very passionate about what he does and he’s very creative. The residents absolutely love our food. Um, if you’ve come by today and you’ve tasted the steak or the chicken or the stuffed mushrooms or any of the stuff, that’s I mean he made that all from scratch. He’s a he’s an amazing, amazing chef. That’s and so that’s what’s on the menu today. Huh, yeah, we got there’s stuff out there I don’t even know the names of Um, but I ate it because I’ll try anything once and if you’re looking for me I’m usually around the food and uh, those stuff mushrooms are just amazing. The sauce he made that you dip in the steak is just so, so nice. And it’s all air conditioning everyone. So you know, there’s really if you have a moment to swing by. Um, I know the address here. I want to make sure that I have the address. Do you have it in front of you? Here it is. It is one seven zero, one sick southeast wax road, and that is in Covington, Washington, brand new vineyard park community senior living and Keith. You are kind of the the ambassador to the location. Is that correct? I am. Yeah, I’ve actually been with care partners for over five years. Oh No, when don’t you know? So where did you come from before? I worked for cascade behavioral health as a Business Development manager and I worked on their geriatric psychiatric unit. So I was introduced to dementia care and I worked with a really, really, really smart lady, Dr Nikarad Long, who was a geriatric psychiatrist, and learned all the INS and outs of dementia care and became very passionate about dementia care and I got to know all the senior care living communities throughout pretty much from Bellingham down to Vancouver, Washington, out to snow qualmie. Uh, and I found care partners, and what really got me about care partner is their ability to do spend downs to Medicaid and guarantee every single one of their residents. That’s amazing. That’s amazing and obviously being able to have that, that ability to know that safeguard that you can always stay here, that’s really an important part of you know, people say seniorly living is expensive, but when you realize you never have to move and you’ll be taking care of the rest of your life, that to me is like there’s no place that’s less money but a place like this, right, right. Yeah, no, very reasonably priced too, and we have a full continuum of care from independent living to memory care, and your spendown will never reset if you’re in our system. So once once you get into our process here, Um, you know, we don’t believe in kicking people out once they’ve spent all their money with us. And Uh, I I hope that more companies start to catch onto this because it’s it’s going to be very, very needed in the near future. Yeah, it definitely will, and as the boomers are getting older and older. Um, you know we I’m right in the middle of the baby boomers, so I know that we’re we all have that in our radar right now. Where are we going to be, you know, ten years from now or fifty or twenty years from now? And and certainly that’s a consideration for sure. And so obviously again, so you are giving tours this weekend? Yes, we are. We’ve been on tours nonstop all morning. Uh, and luckily I was able to sneak away and come in here and talk to you for a little bit. But I’d be happy, I’d love to. This is an absolutely beautiful plot of land that we bought out here and this is the first time that we bought a assistant or I’m sorry, we built an assistant living independent living in our memory care community on the same campus. I love that and so we can really provide that full, continual care. This is kind of the Unicorn of the company. So I have the best executive director, the best nurse, the Best Cook. I kind of hand pick my team for these buildings in particular, and it’s you know, you can build these big beautiful buildings all you want, but if you don’t have the staff to run them right, they’re all for nothing. That’s awesome. Well, we’re going to talk next segment about what is assisted living. We’ve been talking about continuum of care and what does that mean? I want to take our listeners back to school a little bit and let’s talk a little bit about if you come into a community like this and you’re living independently, what’s in it for you as you progress? Maybe you have situations, maybe you have a loved one, maybe your you know your spouse has needs more. You know needs assistance, but you don’t. There’s a way for you to stay together and be together in a community like this for the rest of your lives and always be taken care of. And so everyone. Keith and I will be right back right after this. The preceding podcast was provided by care partners living and answers for elders radio. To contact care partners living, go to care partners living dot com.