MEMORY CARE COMMUNITY IN PORTLAND, OR DESIGNED FOR SENIORS’ SAFETY

You have many factors to consider before deciding which assisted living facility in Portland, Oregon is the best option for a loved one. Selecting a senior living community that emphasizes providing a safe and secure living environment should be at the top of the list of factors. You want to find the assisted living facility that does the best job of protecting your loved one.

One of the many reasons why MorningStar at Laurelhurst receives positive reviews is our unwavering commitment to ensuring the safety and security of our residents. Let’s find out how a senior living facility should be designed for seniors’ safety.

Around-the-Clock Monitoring System

One of the most important reasons for moving a loved one into a senior living community concerns placing your loved one’s safety and security into the well-trained hands of a team of experienced caregivers. Our team members spend considerable time getting to know each resident, which means they notice even the smallest changes in mood and other behavioral patterns. The personal touch of monitoring performed by our caregivers is supported by an around-the-clock electronic monitoring system, which includes a large network of highly sophisticated security cameras.

Design Elements Dedicated to Safety

The assisted living and memory care community where your loved one moves to should feature design elements that foster a safe and secure living environment. Design features such as wider hallways, slip-resistant floors, and handrails placed in rooms and hallways help prevent accidents that can cause serious injuries. Walk-in showers, as well as easy-to-access door handles and light switches, also represent design elements that create a safer and more secure living environment for seniors. Design elements that prevent falling are an especially important part of a safety and security plan, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports more than three million seniors each year receive treatment in emergency rooms for fall injuries.

Enhanced Protections Against Infections

With seniors considered the most vulnerable age group to infections, you should choose an assisted living and memory care community that has implemented a thorough disinfectant program. The COVID-19 pandemic, which ravaged assisted living facilities around the world, makes sanitation a top priority for our community. Our team of caregivers ensures all surfaces receive the application of a natural disinfectant that kills both the Norovirus and Coronavirus, as well as eliminates allergens. In addition, MorningStar at Laurelhurst follows all protocols established by the CDC, such as wearing personal protection equipment (PPE).

Comprehensive Emergency Plan

Natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes can negatively impact any type of structure, especially the ones that house seniors. Senior living facilities must follow the disaster response guidelines created by state, local, and federal government agencies. However, far too many assisted living facilities do not practice responding to an emergency. A comprehensive emergency response plan must include drills that educate residents to respond properly to emergencies.

MorningStar at Laurelhurst: We Make Safety Our Top Priority

We want you to gain peace of mind when you decide to move your loved one into our assisted facility in Portland, OR. The most effective way to help you achieve peace of mind is to ensure the safety of your senior loved one. Learn more about the safety and security features at our senior living community by scheduling a tour of MorningStar at Laurelhurst.

COULD IT BE ALZHEIMER’S? WHEN SHOULD I START SEEKING HELP?

It starts with the occasional misplacement of car keys or difficulty remembering the directions to a favorite eatery. Eventually, Alzheimer’s disease becomes more noticeable, although there is often no reason to feel alarmed for a loved one. After all, growing older comes with a few blips on the radar that is a natural signal indicating the ritual of aging. However, Alzheimer’s disease represents a brain disease that turns worse over time. The disease is defined by slow changes in the brain that produce deposits of certain proteins.

More than 6.5 million seniors in the United States live with some form of Alzheimer’s disease. The key is to detect the signs, which can be difficult to do because of the slow degenerative process that brain cells go through. If a loved one shows signs of forgetting things and/or experiencing a significant personality change, you might be asking the question, could it be Alzheimer’s and if it is, when should I start seeking help?

Alzheimer’s disease triggers the following signs, which if you notice them, might make it the right time to seek help.

Memory Loss

We all experience memory lapses. However, the memory lapses associated with Alzheimer’s typically get worse and continue to persist. As memory lapses become more serious, your senior loved one might repeat statements, as well as ask the same questions several times within just a couple of minutes. As Alzheimer’s develops, your senior loved one can forget having conversations and worse, not remember appointments and important events such as birthdays. Repeatedly misplacing items represents one of the most common signs that a senior loved one lives with some stage of Alzheimer’s disease.

Diminished Cognitive Skills

Alzheimer’s disease can cause concentration lapses, especially when it comes to abstract concepts such as letters and numbers. For example, a senior loved one starts to dial a phone number only to lose focus on the task at hand because of the series of numbers required to make the call. Completing more than one task at the same time is an especially difficult thing to do for those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Handling financial matters like balancing a checkbook or paying monthly bills can turn into a huge problem for seniors trying to live independently with Alzheimer’s.

Personality Changes

The dramatic, albeit slow changes to the brain for seniors afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease can negatively impact mood and behavior. Your senior loved one might suddenly lose interest in a once cherished hobby. Social withdrawal, especially from interacting with family members, is a common sign of Alzheimer’s disease. Significant mood changes might indicate an underlying mental health concern triggered by vast changes to the brain. The mood swings can be as dramatic as a senior loved one feeling euphoric one minute, and then expressing anger or aggression the next minute.

When Should I Start Seeking Help for Alzheimer’s?

There is not a one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Some family members require help when a loved one experiences the early signs of Alzheimer’s, while other family members seek help when a senior loved one falls into one of the later stages of the disease. Regardless of when you seek help for Alzheimer’s, oursenior living facility in Portland, Oregonprovidesthe best memory carefor residents living with the debilitating disease.

Connect with a MorningStar at Laurelhurst caregiver today to learn more about our memory care services.

6 SIGNS OF A GREAT MEMORY CARE COMMUNITY

Diminished memory can make completing simple daily tasks a highly frustrating exercise for a loved one. When memory diminishes enough to pose serious threats to a loved one’s health, the time has arrived to consider a memory care community. What do you look for that defines a great memory care facility?
At our assisted living facility in Portland, Oregon, we present six signs of agreat memory care community.

Staff Gets to Know Residents

Before you arrange for a loved one to move into our senior living facility, we conduct an in-depth interview to get to know your loved one. Once moved into our assisted living facility in Portland, the team of caregivers assigned to interact with your loved one keeps track of your loved one’s cognitive and memory skill levels.

Low Staff-to-Resident Ratio

Your senior loved one deserves the most comprehensive care and at MorningStar, we foster close caregiver interactions with our residents by not overwhelming our team with responsibilities. We offer a low staff-to-resident ratio of memory care professionals that exhibit compassion and empathy. Personalized memory care is one of the most important attributes to consider for an assisted living facility.

Encourages Independence

You should look for a memory care community that encourages independence, such as allowing residents to determine when they go to bed and wake up. Residents should be able to enjoy their bathing preferences, as well as participate in activities based on their interests, not a one-size-fits-all approach taken by other assisted living facilities.

Five-Star Amenities

The memory care community that is the best match for your senior loved one should offer amenities that support participation in a wide variety of hobbies and activities. This is an especially important sign for memory care patients since they should engage in hobbies and activities like chess and checkers that stimulate the brain.

Simple Design Elements

Memory careresidents can feel overwhelmed with cognitive challenges, such as remembering the location of the dining area. Search for a senior living facility that includes simple design features to create an ambiance your senior loved one feels comfortable with when navigating the facility. For example, different wall colors for different sections of a facility can help a memory care patient remember where to go for certain activities.

Active Social Calendar

One of the proven ways to boost cognitive and memory skills for seniors involves encouraging them to interact in social settings. Although the level of care represents the most element of an assisted living facility in Portland. OR, getting your senior loved one to participate in social events comes in a close second. Regular social interactions not only can boost memory, but also can alleviate boredom, anxiety, and even depression.

Outstanding Memory Care for MorningStar Residents

At the MorningStar Senior Living Facility in Portland, we offer three lifestyle options for our residents that include memory care. MorningStar at Laurelhurst is recognized for creating a superior assisted living environment for seniors at different stages of their golden years. Located in the historic Laurelhurst District, our facility covers 146,000 square feet that includes 83 assisted living suites. We devote 32 of the assisted living suites to residents that require memory care.

Contact MorningStar at Laurelhurst to learn more about our highly-rated memory care services.