Village Shalom opens state-of-the-art memory care facility
Each of the three floors in Village Shalom’s new Household Model memory care facility consists of a household with up to 16 residents. A residential kitchen and dining area can be found in each household.Residents and their families can enjoy living areas such as these in each household.Village Shalom officially opened its new state-of-the-art Household Model memory care facility on the Continuing Care Retirement Community’s south-Overland Park campus on Jan. 13. Village Shalom’s memory care building is the first completed part of the retirement community’s major campus expansion.This Household Model is changing the face of Alzheimer’s care, according to Village Shalom President and CEO Matt Lewis, through a methodology focusing on the design of the physical environment and how people behave, the development of self-led staff teams, an adherence to resident routines and desires and replacing institutional patterns that focus on efficiency with resident-focused services. The new memory care building has three households each with 16 private rooms for a total of 48 units. With smaller groupings of residents the scale of the environment is kept at a more normal and residential size. Memory experts believe smaller households are associated with less anxiety/depression, more positive activity, greater social interaction & friendship formation and more resident-staff interaction. Each household has a porch with a front door entrance where visitors enter and exit the household like they would at a home. Each household includes a family space — complete with a kitchen for family-style meals, a living room and an outdoor patio — shared by the 16 residents living in the household. The individual apartments are separated from the family space to provide a sanctuary away from the rest of the household. In the Household Model, residents direct their own lives — getting up when they want, deciding how to spend their days and even sharing in household responsibilities.“Throughout our 100-plus years of serving Kansas City-area seniors, Village Shalom has continuously stayed at the forefront of the most cutting-edge practices that provide our residents with the highest possible quality of life,” Lewis said. “The person-centered care offered through the Household Model has been proven to substantially increase quality of life, and we are thrilled to have the ability to offer such a high level of care.”The retirement community is now in the process of introducing residents to their new home in the facility. The residents from Village Shalom’s former memory care space on the main campus were made at home in the new facility when it opened earlier this month.Over the next couple of months, Village Shalom will continue to add new residents to the community from the waitlist. The organization is also in the process of gradually hiring more staff for the new facility. Memory care team members have consistent assignments to one household and get to know residents personally, providing each individual with an enhanced sense of health and well-being.Construction on the standalone memory care building began in July of 2018 when Village Shalom broke ground on its campus expansion. This is the organization’s first major construction since opening in 2000, and the $54 million project has nearly doubled the footprint of the retirement community.In addition to the standalone memory care facility, the campus expansion also includes a newly renovated rehabilitation center with expanded therapy space, and a new independent living community consisting of apartment homes and a Main Street with a number of new dining and service amenities.Main Street will serve as the corridor that connects the main campus to the new four-story independent living apartment community that is set for completion later this year.Construction is going strong on the new independent living apartment community with masonry work making its way around the exterior of the building along with waterproofing. Dry wall is wrapping up on the interior of the building, and painting and flooring have begun to go in. The apartment community will consist of 76 apartment units and an underground parking garage. So far, 60 of the 76 apartments have been sold.“We are so thrilled to welcome so many new residents to our campus later this year,” said Jill Allin, Village Shalom’s director of sales and marketing. “Many individuals in the first generation of residents that will occupy the new independent living apartment community have expressed excitement over the varied offerings of size, finish quality, services and amenities that set our community apart and ahead of others in the local market.”The new Main Street amenity corridor will unify Village Shalom’s existing independent living villa community and the new independent living apartment community by adding a number of amenities and services specifically tailored to active living. Main Street will include a casual dining restaurant with a wood-fired oven; a bar and bistro area offering grab-and-go options throughout the day and a full-service bar in the evening; an intimate theatre space for lectures and movies; and a full day spa with salon, manicure, pedicure, facial and massage therapy services.Main Street will connect to a courtyard area with outdoor dining, a fire pit and a pickleball court. The new community will also feature a 24-hour satellite fitness center, a game room with card and pool tables, an artist studio and a family gathering space with a full kitchen.The full campus expansion is expected to be completed summer of 2020. Watch for future events celebrating the close of construction, which will be announced closer to the completion of the expansion.“We want to thank all of staff, residents and families for the support that has been offered during the last year and a half of construction,” Lewis said. “This transformation is something we should all be proud of, and is revolutionary to the care of not only our current residents, but of the future generations of individuals who become part of our community.”
