{"id":128,"date":"2019-08-05T13:10:28","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T20:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/careerboardnetwork.com\/blog\/?p=128"},"modified":"2019-08-05T13:10:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T20:10:28","slug":"to-your-health-when-assisted-living-feels-like-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/careerboardnetwork.com\/blog\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"TO YOUR HEALTH: When assisted living feels like home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.thechiefnews.com\/community\/to-your-health-when-assisted-living-feels-like-home\/article_9e233d9e-b4fe-11e9-b49d-0f9829e58cba.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The residents of The Amber Assisted Living feel more like family members than they do like housemates. The \u201cfamily feeling\u201d is exactly what Heather Medina, Executive Director, strives to create.<\/p>\n

The Amber Assisted Living, located at 365 SW Bel Air Drive in Clatskanie, provides assisted living to its senior residents, according to information on its website. It has existed since at least 2003, according to Medina. Since then, the facility has experienced a lot of changes, and for the better, Medina said.<\/p>\n

When she started working at The Amber in 2015, Medina was employed as a medical technician, more commonly shortened to \u201cmed tech.\u201d She worked there until 2017, and during that time, Medina said things were not going very well. One metric that Medina said exemplifies the failings of the facility during that time were online reviews on crowd-sourced review sites such as Yelp.com or Glassdoor.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you would post online looking for a job, people would say \u2018don\u2019t go there,\u2019\u201d Medina said. \u201cNow, I can post and people will say \u2018it\u2019s a great place to work, it\u2019s a great place to live.\u2019 That\u2019s how I like to compare the reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, the turnover of staff and administration at the place was high. Back then, Medina said there was a general lack of family involvement, and staff was under-trained.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, it\u2019s a very different story. Medina said it\u2019s common for residents\u2019 grandchildren to spend the night, and to have families over for the holidays.<\/p>\n

Medina believes a lot of these changes come from improved staff training. The Amber employs a staff of 21: 16 caregivers and med techs, three kitchen staff, one maintenance manager and one nurse. There are also two volunteers that are in charge of the Sunday and Monday church services. While all of them contribute to the general upkeep and maintenance of the facility, the care of the residents falls primarily into the hands of the med techs and caregivers. As a former med tech herself, Medina said she understood the importance of ensuring that med techs were as familiar as possible with residents and their needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to make sure they know every resident, who\u2019s in which room and what they need.<\/p>\n

We have them read care plans and know what they\u2019re doing before they\u2019re on their own. We make sure that the confidence is there and that they know what they\u2019re doing. Nobody\u2019s ever thrown to the wolves,\u201d Medina said.<\/p>\n

Medina said she believes improved training has made a big difference in the quality of care that the elderly in the facility receive.<\/p>\n

As for the daily activities, there are a lot of things for residents to do. According to Medina, residents can participate in up to three activities per day. Most recently, the residents did canvas painting, a dice game, and decorated their \u201cpositivity board,\u201d which provides positive messages for residents to read.<\/p>\n

Amenities provided for residents include a pool table where pool tournaments are often held, a library, a movie room, an activities room filled with board games, and even a salon. Residents can participate in leading activities. On Saturdays, Julia Lambert leads bingo, and she also runs a community store for the other residents.<\/p>\n

Recently, The Amber had its first barbecue, something Medina wants to repeat on an annual basis. The barbecue is just one example of Medina trying to include residents\u2019 families as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Several residents said they feel like a family, not like folks who happen to live in the same facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all consider ourselves a family, and I think that every new person that comes in is like family. Even the staff, they treat us like we\u2019re one of their own kin,\u201d Lambert said.<\/p>\n

Lambert, 61, said she has only one blood-related family member left, her sister, who has health issues that make it hard for her to visit. She and her sister talk on the phone a lot, but Lambert does not feel lonely due to lack of visitors. She recommends the place to anyone considering assisted living.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re older and you still feel like you have things to do, I think you should come here and join us, and be part of our family, and not just be sitting in a bed,\u201d Lambert said. \u201cWe\u2019re not really a community, we\u2019re a family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.thechiefnews.com\/community\/to-your-health-when-assisted-living-feels-like-home\/article_9e233d9e-b4fe-11e9-b49d-0f9829e58cba.html The residents of The Amber Assisted Living feel more like family members than they do like housemates. The \u201cfamily feeling\u201d is exactly what Heather Medina, Executive Director, strives to create. The Amber Assisted Living, located at 365 SW Bel Air Drive in Clatskanie, provides assisted living to its senior residents, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “TO YOUR HEALTH: When assisted living feels like home”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seniorliving"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t