CNY offers wide spectrum of elder care housing services

By Mary Beth Roach

You have lost your spouse, and the home where you raised your family is too large to maintain by yourself.

You are empty nesters and want to downsize.

You have spent some time in a hospital and you’re going to be discharged, but the layout of your home is a physical challenge and care management seems stressful.

You never married or are recently widowed and you have no children to assist you.

You are an adult child, living hundreds if not thousands of miles from your mom and/or dad, and you are concerned about their health and well-being in their current home.

Is the retirement nest egg going to be enough?   What resources are you or your parents eligible for?
What kind of residence is right for you? High-rise apartment? Community-like settings? Independent? Assisted living?  An urban location in Syracuse? A residence in the suburbs? Or a more country feel? The decision to transition to a senior residence can be filled with emotion, and with the multitude of options from which to choose, the whole experience can become downright overwhelming.

Mattia Kinslow, 90, knows all too well the trepidation of making such a move.
Her husband had passed away, and she found it difficult to move from the house they had shared in the Liverpool area, a home he had built, to the Hearth on James.

“Just leaving the place with so many memories was the most difficult,” she said. But once she became acclimated to her new residence, she thrived. She was elected president within her first year there and has since served on numerous committees. Kinslow meets and greets all the new residents, presenting them with small welcoming gifts.

The community aspect of the Hearth is what appealed to Kinslow.

Her home had always been filled with people, she said, and now she is surrounded by new friends.

he Hearth on James, owned by Hearth Management LLC, also operates the Hearth at Greenpoint in Liverpool and its Keepsake Village, a memory care community for those with dementia or Alzheimer’s.

The joy of a community such as the Hearth is the socialization, said Kelly Kiggins, executive director at the 71-unit facility on James Street in Syracuse.

They offer independent living and also enriched housing, which provides such services as daily care needs for residents in the morning and evening and medication management.

Breakfasts and dinners are provided for all the residents, allowing staff to do a safety check. If a resident doesn’t show up for dinner, Kiggins explained, a staff member is  going to visit that apartment. The pricing structure varies, depending on the level of care.

Just around the corner from the Hearth are two high rises called Ross Towers, one of several  senior residences run by the Syracuse Housing Authority.

SHA properties are public housing, with rents based on income and family size. The waiting list is centralized, with applicants’ preferences taken into consideration, and currently the average wait is about nine months.

Some of SHA’s housing are high-rise buildings and a couple of them are rehabbed schools; all have a community room with a kitchen space, a computer center, and central laundry.

Transportation is offered to area grocery stores, and the activities offered are more diverse than one might expect.

“Our persona is more diverse than people think,” said Deborah Banks, program coordinator for elderly services for the SHA.

With approximately 940 residents at least 60 years of age, they range from the “baby boomers” who are entering the ranks of senior citizens to the older, more frail population.

“They’re a very mobile bunch,” she added. Banks strives to develop programs and activities to coincide with their many interests.

While SHA facilities are all within the city of Syracuse, Christopher Community, a not-for-profit development and management company, has properties in Onondaga, Cayuga, Chemung, Erie, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Oneida, Oswego and Seneca counties.

The rent at most of the properties is subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Most of the properties are one-bedroom units, with differing amenities, and each site manages its own waiting list, according to Cindy Bird, vice president for property management at Christopher Community.
One of newest properties managed by Christopher Community and owned by Loretto is the O’Brien Road Apartments in Baldwinsville.

Loretto offers an extensive package of housing options in terms of the levels of care and the number of facilities they run throughout the area.

The Bernardine high-rise complex in the Valley section of Syracuse offers varying levels of care—independent and supportive living and enriched and assisted living programs—and residents can transition through these without having to relocate.

Buckley Landing in North Syracuse offers  the enriched and assisted living programs; Sedgwick Heights in Syracuse provides an adult home program and assisted living; and The Heritage, on Loretto’s Brighton Avenue campus, is a residential program for those with dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Of all of Loretto’s  properties, The Nottingham, a retirement community in the eastern part of Onondaga County, offers an extensive range of health care in one location.

A private pay model for the most part, it has apartments and cottages on the independent end of the spectrum; enriched housing; and a 40-bed skilled nursing program on the other end of the spectrum.
Like The Nottingham, Springside at Seneca Hill, run by Oswego Health and situated in a wooded area off of state Route 481 between Fulton and Oswego, offers both apartments with a community hub, and single-home dwellings.

It is a private-pay facility, and part of a 138-acre campus that includes a health service center with a VA clinic, radiation, oncology and dental surgery; and The Manor at Seneca Hill, a skilled nursing care facility.
The area was designed with acreage to expand within the next several years to include an assisted living component, according to Teresa Ferlito, vice president of Springside at Seneca Hill.

Springside’s main building features 44 units—24 one-bedroom and 20 two-bedroom, all situated on one floor, with a community area at its hub.

In addition, there are five sets of duplex houses and three single cottages. The homes are all two-bedroom, two-bathroom units, all have garages, and all have patios of different sizes. Some have an additional room to be used as a den or sunroom; some have fireplaces; some have breakfast bars.

Because the main building has all the units, services and amenities on one floor, with no stairs to challenge the residents, they are able to heighten their mobility, she said.

“When you give up some of those physical challenges, your body reacts to that well and you really do live a healthier life, especially when you remove some of that stress,” Ferlito added.

Monthly rates for the apartments include dinner plans, while residents prepare their breakfasts and lunches in their apartments.

Gathering everyone together for the evening meal also enhances the social environment, one of the biggest assets of Springside, and provides staff a way to account for the residents. A “good morning” call by staff is optional.

The apartments and homes are all private pay, and it was designed, Ferlito said, to fill a void for those whose income surpassed the limits at subsidized housing units.

Springside is at 100 percent capacity in the apartments, and just recently they are starting to see some of the houses become available.

Farther north, just off state Route 481 in Oswego overlooking the Oswego River, is Bishop’s Commons at St. Luke, an assistive living facility with 60 units, with both studios and one-bedrooms, and a common area.
They provide three meals a day, activities, laundry service, housekeeping and transportation. They are at full capacity, with a short waiting list, according to executive director Karen Murray. Like most assistive living residences, Bishop’s Commons offers three meals a day, activities, laundry service, housekeeping and transportation, and the common areas include a library, fitness center, beauty/barber shop and more.

Like Ferlito, Murray underscores the need to remove stress from the lives of seniors.

Daily matters, such as maintaining a home, lifting groceries, dealing with transportation, whether it’s with one’s own vehicle or waiting on cabs or buses, making sure the sidewalks are shoveled and the driveways are plowed during Central New York winters—all these challenges can be taxing for seniors, Murray pointed out.

Not to mention the concerns of adult children who might live a distance from their parents and cannot be as hands-on as they’d like to be.

Bishop’s Commons, like the other residences, aims to offer a quality of living that removes or lessens these concerns, and therefore goes  a long way in promoting an overall sense of health and well-being.

“Knowing when to move is probably the hardest thing for some of the seniors to realize,” said Ferlito.

And navigating through the financial aspects of it all can be a daunting undertaking.

“You really do need a road map,” said Sally Berry, senior vice president for policy and program development at Loretto.

But some of those in the field offered some advice in helping one find their way along that map.

Don’t wait for a health crisis to begin looking at retirement living options, said Ferlito.

The experts all agreed—plan ahead, do research, have conversations, set up tours of residences and facilities, see those living in the communities, meet staff, and surf the Internet.

Most of these facilities have Web sites, as do local and state agencies such as the following:

• The New York State Office for the Aging’s site at www.aging.ny.gov

• seniorhousing.state.ny.us

• The Onondaga County Department of Aging and Youth at ongov.net/ay

• The Oswego County Office for the Aging at  www.co.oswego.ny.us/ofa.

Yet, some seniors find themselves forced to make  changes in living arrangements as a result of a medical crisis and hospitalization and they can often find discharge planners at the hospitals to be a good resource, according to Kiggins.

They can lay out options and are familiar with choices available to seniors. Berry said there are geriatric care and consultation advisers that families can meet with, as well.

What does senior living look like for the future?

One trend will most likely be a continuing care model, similar to what is being done at The Nottingham and Springside, where all different levels of care are in one location or one campus.

And some in the field see a move away from the  institutional settings toward more independent living arrangements in residential settings, an example of which will be Loretto’s Green Community initiative.

As statistics show, people are living longer, with retirement still being a dynamic part of life.

As Ferlito said, “You can plan for quality of life in retirement.”