Sarah Chimbanga, Regional Director of Health and Wellness at Era Living, joins Suzanne. This segment covers the service plans and flexible licensing offered at Era Living. She's based at their University House Wallingford community. Their assessment process begins as part of the move-in process, as they gather sensitive & personal information for their assessment. While building a relationship of trust, they work to ensure the move is as smooth as possible. They talk about their service plans, exactly what care needs are supported at Era Living, and how they're reviewed and revised.
Flexible licensing is important because as residents might need further help, Era Living is able to provide additional care without the resident having to move to a different location, very important for couples, and provides a measure of comfort.
Sarah says, "We do the pre- move-in assessment, and from that we try to gather and gauge what are some of the services that we think a resident might need coming in. We also know that once you actually start to provide the care, once the residents actually start to receive the care, that there might be some tweaks that need to be made. So we usually do another assessment two weeks after moving in. And then following that, we do one every six months or whenever there's a change in condition."
The segment also talks about Assisted Living services versus Nursing Home Care. Assisted living provides assistance with activities of daily living. Two of their communities have memory care if they also need support for dementia, requiring a different set of skills.
Regarding how Era Living works with family, Sarah says, "We consider our families as part of the care team. A lot of families help support the residents with appointments, whether it's outside the community, they help with being the bridge or the advocate between the resident and their providers. So we found that it's really critical to include them any time we're discussing the care. So, for example, during the move-in process, a lot of families — if the resident chooses — do participate during that assessment. One of the things that we're trying to do is to say what can we as a community provide, how and what can the family also provide, or want to provide? And together, we kind of mesh those two: Here's what family is providing here is what our community is providing, and here's what the resident wants, because we always again try to keep the resident as the center of that."
There's more about Era Living at Answers for Elders and at eraliving.com. University House Wallingford is located at 4400 Stone Way N, Seattle, WA 98103-7485.
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