Senior Living Households Focus on Relationships
Isakson Living has developed two Atlanta communities that put the emphasis on a sense of community.
“I’d like to move to an assisted living facility or a nursing home” are often not words that are readily spoken by seniors in need of more personal care. It is often hard enough to give up the familiar circumstances of a home that is comfortable and familiar, much less a move to a setting which is lacking that soft touch we associate with home life.
But one Atlanta-based developer of senior living communities has embraced a model that combines many of the comforts of home with a level of long-term care consistent with personal needs.
This relatively new approach to senior living is called “the household model” or “small home model” of care that combines a sense of personal safety and support with the added comforts of community and of home. It is a more personal experience in senior living that avoids many of the stereotypes associated with the image of a more institutionalized setting. At least one innovative developer of senior living communities has fully embraced the concept.
Isakson Living, a locally owned firm that was started by members of the family of the late former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, has opened its second community conveniently located in Peachtree Hills in Atlanta.
Founder and managing partner of Isakson Living, Andy Isakson, sees The Terraces at Peachtree Hills Place, as the community is called, an environment that fosters relationships.
“It’s all about relationships with the members and the staff. And there are some very strong relationships,” Isakson says. “I mean, some care partners really are considered by our members as part of their own family.”
The Peachtree Hills facility builds upon the experience of Isakson Living’s first household model community in Stone Mountain. It is a part of Park Springs, a 61-acre gated community that provides a continuum of care that encourages wellbeing at every stage of life.
In their household model of care, residents are grouped in six self-contained communities of about 18 residents each. The communities share a central dining and living room. Meals are prepared by a cook, but residents establish their own schedule for meals and eat from a personalized menu. They come and go as they please and are free to share in any of the facility’s recreational and social amenities.
The household model generally offers residents more autonomy and choice. Residents make their own schedule and are not bound by a routine imposed on them. Because of the strong sense of making their own everyday choices, that enhances a sense of purposeful living that can disappear in a more institutional setting.
“It’s a family-like environment, and there’s consistency. The same group of people work together every day in the same household,” Isakson points out. “So, everyone who works there knows everyone else. The staff get to know the residents and their likes and dislikes. You know they don’t have to ask you how you like your eggs for breakfast, they know how you like your eggs.”
That personal touch also extends to medical care. Isakson Living’s two communities are among the few in this part of the country that maintain its own on-site medical clinic staffed by a primary care physician trained in gerontology. There is also a full-time medical director, as well, that can be a part of a more ambitious health care plan.
“At Park Springs, many people live independently,” Isakson said, “but with our continuity of care, if their situation changes, we have home care. We have our own medical practice. We have skilled nursing, we have memory care, we have adult daycare, we have assisted living. So, we have a lot of tools in our toolbox, so people don’t have to worry about the future, what might happen.”
According to those who have long-term experience in working with the household model, a more personalized standard of care model can often lead to better health. In a personalized setting, care can be more attentive, reducing the risk of common medical issues that are often more prevalent in larger facilities. But maintaining this great attention to detail requires more attention to the training and retention of staff. In an industry that often sees a 50 percent turnover rate in staff and administration year-to-year, this can be a challenge.
And there’s more pressure on controlling costs, which can sometimes balloon in an environment that is labor intensive. But being a business that’s locally based, that’s close to the members it serves and the staff that works with them is, according to Andy Isakson, a big advantage.
“We’re not a chain out of Chicago or something like that. People know how to find us and see us every day in the community. We’re not trying to be the biggest, we’re trying to do something good.”
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