Present and future planning

Things I am doing in preparation for my move from a house to an apartment in a retirement community.

There is a lot involved with any move but your final independent living move has a lot more things to consider than a normal move. Every decision you make must take into consideration how you want to live now, while also considering how each decision will affect your living as you get older and frailer. If you don't consider these things now, you will have to deal with the consequences later when you may not be healthy enough to deal with them by yourself.

Navigation

Navigation by Salemtowne is a program that allows its members to age at home and not have to worry about their medical care. The program will have a new offering in 2019 for those who want to live in their current home as long as they can and then move into Salemtowne. The new plan will cover 65% of in-home care services and up to 96% of the one-time Navigation membership fee may transfer to the Salemtowne entrance fee.

Merry Mingle

I went to a Merry Mingle at Salemtowne this afternoon. Its the annual Christmas gathering of the Towne Club (people on the waiting list for residency at Salemtowne). Lots festive, friendly folks getting to know their future friends. You never meet a stranger at Salemtowne, everyone seems like someone already you know; that's one of the reasons I chose to live there.

Savers will understand

I signed the reservation agreement for my apartment in Salemtowne so I'm now committed to the move. As it is with anyone moving to a CCRC, there is a lot I have to do in preparation for the move. I have to downsize, consider all I need and don't need due to the lifestyle change, and then prepare the house for selling and put it on the market. All that keeps you busy every day, but for some of us, there is another is another concern. The reality of having to spend the money you have saved just for this occasion. When you are a dedicated, lifelong saver, spending is painful and keeps you awake at night second-guessing all your decisions.

I got the call!!

After 35 years of planning for retirement living, 5 years of touring retirement communities in the triad area and lots of research and analysis on the subject, I finally got the call.

In February 2019, I will be moving into the Salemtowne Retirement Community in Winston-Salem NC.

I will be posting updates (under the My Quest topic in the menu) about my experiences during my transition from a house to an apartment in an independent living retirement community. Once I move in, I'll be adding more information to the blog about what its like to live in a CCRC and I'll create a page of tips for Salemtowne residents, some of which may be useful for residents of other CCRCs.

Towne Club Merry Mingle

Salemtowne Retirement Community hosted a Merry Mingle event for Towne Club members yesterday. As with all Towne Club events, it was well-planned and had all the friendly marketing staff available to answer questions. Towne Club members got to socialize with each other and learn about their potential future neighbors. 

I visited 10 CCRCs around central North Carolina, some more than once, before settling on Salemtowne as my final choice. Of all the CCRCs I visited, Salemtowne's residents were the friendliest and most down-to-earth. The staff is always super friendly and helpful, and their behavior appears real, not just because they are required to behave that way. The staff and residents make you feel at home and they seem like people you want to know. Salemtowne’s Moravian inspired architecture is timeless always warm and inviting, especially during the Christmas season. I’m a Scrooge and even I felt Christmassy.

Towne Club Luncheon

When you pay a deposit and get your name on the waiting list at Salemtown CCRC, you become a member of the Towne Club and receive a lot of benefit from the membership. One of the benefits is periodic luncheons where you get a superb meal, get to meet and talk with other club members, and get updates on Salemtowne's current status and future plans.

I attended a club luncheon this week and it was a very enjoyable experience. Salemtowne is growing fast, building new facilities, and modernizing older facilities. I look forward to the time when an apartment with my floor plan opens and I am ready to move.

Salemtowne's new health care center

On 8 June 2017, I attended the ribbon cutting and tour of Salemtowne’s new eight-acre, 127,000 square foot, $41.9 million, Babcock Health Care Center. It is a fantastic place that is over three football fields long.

There are sky lights everywhere and large, tall windows throughout. There are high ceilings in the rooms and the main corridors are two stories high. All the flooring, walls, and décor are light pastel colors that have a “beachy” feel. The whole building is so open and bright that you feel as though you are outside on a sunny day. The exterior design of the facility has a Moravian influence that blends well with other buildings on the campus.

At the west entrance of the facility, the lower level contains a 20-bed secure memory care unit named Westerly Place. It will use the “Best Friends” approach where staff members are encouraged to learn the residents’ backgrounds to deepen their relationships in hopes of stimulating activity and enhancing residents’ feelings of security.

One section of the main level contains 40 short-term resident rooms for rehabilitation patients, each with a view of a courtyard, and a very large rehab physical training room that is very bright and airy. Off the training room is a room with all the major appliances one would find in a home, which are used to train rehab patients to use them again. There is also a bathroom with a tub so patients can practice getting in and out of it.

The core of the facility has an open-concept cafeteria, a large beauty shop, and a very large, bright multipurpose room for special events.

The periphery of the building contains three skilled nursing neighborhoods: Salem Square, Mill Place, and Garden Court, each with a historic decorative feel. Each neighborhood is similar to a small, individual self-contained nursing facility. Each neighborhood forms a large square around a large central courtyard. The entrance side of the square has a large living room and lounge area and a large open dining room with a fully equipped chef’s kitchen where meals may be prepared to fit each patient’s wants and needs, and a spa. Each neighborhood has its own staff that caters to the needs of the small group of patients.

The other three sides of a neighborhood square contain 20 large, private rooms, each with a large closet, a fully adjustable bed, a lockable night stand, a chest of drawers, and a lounge chair. There are sliding barn style doors into a bathroom that has a shower that is level with the floor, a sink in a built-in dresser that has many drawers, and a vertical storage unit with many drawers. Instead of medication carts being wheeled around the neighborhood, each room has a nurse’s station with a lock-box that contains the patient’s medications in pre-prepared blister packs.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center provides medical care at Salemtowne and has worked with the community in developing wellness programs for residents and in developing the new health care facility.  The cost for a skilled nursing bed at the new facility is $305 a day. Residents of Salemtowne independent living receive a 20% discount on any higher levels of care they require.

Gallery of images of the new facility.

Salemtowne expansion underway

Salemtowne, a CCRC in Winston-Salem, NC is expanding.

New villas, due to open in mid-to-late 2018, will have open-concept floor plans with light coming in from two or three sides, large patios or balconies, and underground parking.

A new health care community is due to open in mid-2017. This state-of-the-art, 120-bed, nearly 127,000 square feet facility will provide healthcare services for both Salemtowne residents and the larger community. Sixty beds will offer long-term skilled nursing services, forty beds will be dedicated to short-term rehab service, and twenty beds will provide memory care assisted living services. The skilled nursing facility and the memory care assisted living facility are designed in the household or neighborhood models of care where beds will be divided into households of twenty beds each. 

Once the new healthcare community is open, the existing Phillips Healthcare Center will be demolished to prepare for future resident housing.