Transitional Assisted Living and Memory Care Options

Transitional Assisted Living & Memory Care

It’s challenging and emotional for families to experience the effects of Alzheimer’s and dementia on their loved ones. We understand the sense of loss that family members and loved ones experience as the effects of dementia progress. The good news is that Sunshine Retirement Living is here to inspire you to believe that “Hope Blooms” in every landscape.  Our knowledgeable and caring staff and enriching programs nourish and enrich the life of your loved one while helping everyone in the family feel taken care of.

Our Transitional Assisted Living and Memory Care Communities are for those who are starting to experience early memory issues and require more nuanced cognitive care than available in assisted living or are already experiencing Alzheimer’s or other dementias.

Sunshine’s Transitional Assisted Living and Memory Care communities are designed with an innovative transitional assisted living and memory care Life Enrichment Program that encompasses the Sunshine Pillars of Wellness by focusing on your loved one’s physical care as well as their social, spiritual, sensory, emotional, and cognitive needs. Our programs and specialized care are designed to ease the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and dementia and celebrate their life. Our innovative approach to the challenges experienced by our transitional assisted living and memory care residents and their families.

Not only do we care for your loved one, we are here for you and your family as well, with a wealth of educational resources to guide you on the journey, as well as health and wellness advisors to answer your questions. Maintaining the identity of your loved one and your family heritage are at the forefront of our person-centered approach. We believe no one should be defined by the symptoms of Alzheimer’s or dementia, and that a life of meaning and purpose can be accomplished in the right care environment.

Transitional Assisted Living and Memory Care Options
Transitional Assisted Living and Memory Care Options

Memory Care Therapies & Person-Centered Care

We strive to improve the lives of those experiencing memory challenges, Alzheimer’s, or other dementias with our Person-Centered Care approach and research-backed Memory Care Therapies.

  • Music Therapy
    Music releases dopamine in the brain triggering happy feelings throughout the body and calming agitation. Music also improves memory function and encourages social engagement.
  • Aromatherapy
    Certain aromas, like the scent of lavender or freshly baked cookies, can help reduce difficult behaviors in older adults with dementia. Aromatherapy can also improve sleep, decrease agitation, aid in concentration, and reduce hallucinations.
  • Pet Therapy
    Pet therapy has many benefits for seniors with dementia, including decreased agitation, increased physical activity, improved appetite, and joy.
  • Light Therapy
    Light plays a factor in cognitive, behavioral, and physical wellness. Circadian rhythm lighting is another way we try to help our residents feel their best. This therapy uses light to calibrate the body to Earth’s natural solar clock, so we feel awake and alert during daylight hours and sleep soundly during dark hours.
  • Art Therapy
    Artistic outlets can offer profoundly positive outcomes for those with Alzheimer’s or dementia. The validating practice of creative self-expression can improve concentration, attention, and quality of life, as well as trigger emotions or memories.
  • Physical Exersice
    Physical exercise helps mitigate wandering and improves balance, which aids in the prevention of falls. We offer secured and monitored outdoor areas to encourage residents to exercise outdoors and enjoy the fresh air.
  • Sensory & VR Therapy
    Stimulating the five senses can help calm nerves, reduce anxiety, improve mood, and increase social engagement. With our VR headsets, residents can take a walk on a sandy beach to revisit a memory from a long ago family vacation, listen to music from the front row seats of a metropolitan opera, visit animals on a farm, and more. What’s viewed in the VR headsets also can be streamed onto a screen or handheld tablet, enabling other viewers to join in on the experience.

Person-Centered Care combines a robust life enrichment program and a holistic, collaborative care approach to fulfill our mission of improving the lives of seniors experiencing memory challenges, Alzheimer’s, and other dementias.

Six Guiding Principles:

  • Empower residents
  • Support independence
  • Enhance dignity
  • Honor choice
  • Promote positive well-being
  • Improve quality of life

Six Pillars of Wellness:

  • Physical engagement
  • Spiritual support
  • Intellectual discovery
  • Sensory stimulation
  • Emotional expression
  • Social Connections

Collaborative Person-Centered Care Model (Memory Care, Assisted Living, and Personalized Care)

Sunshine’s approach to collaborative care begins with in-depth discovery and an ongoing, detailed assessment process centered around individual needs, values, and preferences to create custom Person-Centered Care for each resident. It depends upon open and transparent communication and equal collaboration across all departments. The end result is an approach in which each individual resident benefits from the six core tenets of Person-Centered Care.

For example, a housekeeper overhears a resident’s conversation in which she reminisces about baking cornbread with her mother. The housekeeper understands the conversation opens opportunities to build happy memories within the six core tenets of Person-Centered Care and shares it with teammates.

  • Supports Independence
    The housekeeper offers to help the resident tidy up, and they dust together while building on the conversation about favorite cooking. The resident feels like she is participating rather than simply being served.
  • Enhances Dignity
    Caregivers use the same strategy as a redirection tool any time a resident is reluctant to receive care and support with daily activities so that they do not feel forced to participate in unwanted activities.
  • Promotes Positive Well-Being
    The Health Services Director and Executive Director use this information as a positive call to the family, sharing discovery with them and leading to more beneficial family and resident interactions when visiting.
  • Improves Quality of Life
    The Life Enrichment Director adds this cooking life skill to her personalized activity care plan for the resident. Reminiscing topics related to her childhood are researched and used in one-on-one and group interactions. A kit of kitchen tools and kitchen towels like those from her childhood is developed through partnering with family members.
  • Honors Choices and Empowers Residents
    The Executive Chef engages the resident in re-creating her mother’s recipe for cornbread in the same style as the resident prefers it. Then the Chef and the resident do a cooking activity together (the bread is prepared beforehand and reheated), giving the resident the opportunity to share her beloved mother’s recipe with all residents.

The important factor in Sunshine’s Person-Centered Care is the collaboration of team members who understand the importance of communication and participation. The development of this approach begins in the earliest phases of our relationship with the resident and family, and it involves every level of the community’s team, from front desk staff and housekeeping to executive directors.

Transitional Assisted Living and Memory Care Options
Transitional Assisted Living and Memory Care Options

Growing The Six Sunshine Pillars of Wellness

A robust life enrichment program is vital to providing meaning in the daily lives of people living with Alzheimer’s disease or any dementia illness. Like tending vegetables in a garden, each of the six Sunshine Pillars of Wellness act to nurture and grow the solid foundation on which our collaborative person-centered care approach is built.

Based on the Sunshine Pillars of Wellness, the Memory Care Life Enrichment Program draws from a philosophy that is rooted in a Montessori-style approach. While the Montessori method was initially developed for early childhood education, the philosophy and approaches – modified to honor the age and experiences of our residents – provide sensory stimulation and encourage cognitive stimulation while building on existing social skills.

The important factor in Sunshine’s Wellness Garden is the collaboration of team members who understand the importance of communication and participation. The development of this approach begins in the earliest phases of our relationship with the resident and family, and it involves every level of the community’s team, from front desk staff and housekeeping to executive directors.

  • Physical Engagement
    Providing activities that promote residents’ physicality help to curb agitation, wandering, and sleeplessness.
  • Social Connections
    For people with dementia, isolation often follows failure and embarrassment in social interactions. Activities offered in both large and small group settings that encourage “failure free” opportunities for socialization, building relationships, and community are an integral part of our wellness model.
  • Spiritual Support
    Recognizing and embracing the needs of each person’s spirituality through music, discussion, prayer, affirmations, nature, and other diverse means of support provides comfort and familiar purpose.
  • Intellectual Discovery
    Residents with dementia enjoy learning. Intellectual and educational activities based on interests that encourage the action of learning and participating in new things is important.
  • Sensory Stimulation Program
    Gentle touch, pleasant visual images, enjoyable sounds, yummy meals and snacks, and aromatherapy are used to encourage meaningful interactions. Purposefully designed areas with theme settings from a resident’s past can spark memories and interests, and can encourage independent or group interactions.
  • Emotional Expression
    Whether it is through dance, reminiscing and storytelling, or simply being, emotional expression flows throughout the day. We strive to create opportunities to engage peoples’ passions and connect with them on a deeper level.

Transitional Assisted Living and Memory Care Communities

Click on any Transitional Assisted Living and Memory Care communities below to learn more.

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