Episode 11: Moving Into a Senior Living Community: What You Need to Know
“Episode #11: Moving Into a Senior Living Community: What You Need to Know” by Sue Lanza and Shawn Carty. Released: 2022. Track 11. Genre: podcast.
Transcription
Sue Lanza:
Hi everyone. And welcome to another episode of House Guest. The podcast asked about all things related to the House of the Good Shepherd, a retirement community in Hackettstown, New Jersey. I’m [Sue Lanza] the CEO and I’m joined today by my co-host the Reverend [Shawn Carty], who is our chaplain. Please enjoy. Hey Shawn, how are you today?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Hi Sue. I’m doing well. How are you?
Sue Lanza:
I’m doing great. Welcome to the 11th episode of House Guest. Today, we want to learn more about moving into a senior living community and really what you need to know all the details. So, Shawn, I have a feeling there’s more than just you in the room right now.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
We are not alone.
Sue Lanza:
Oh no.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
No. In fact, we’re not. Although I would say you’re never really alone in any room, but that’s a chaplain things. We have two guests with us.
Sue Lanza:
Ooh. Could you tell us who we have? I’m very excited.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, first we have Christina McLaughlin. Who’s the director of sales and marketing for our independent living and assisted living. We also have another Christina, Christina Partica, who’s our director of admissions for skilled nursing and comprehensive care. Why don’t we ask them to say a few words about their background, Christina McLaughlin, please go first.
Christina McLaughlin:
First. Sure. Thank you, Shawn. I’ve been in various capacities of the senior living industry for the past 26 years and it’s a passion of mine to get to know each client and family, and then match them with the best senior living solution for them.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Very Good. And Christina Partica.
Kristina Partika:
Hi, thank you for having us. I have been in healthcare for quite some time as well, a little over 16 years as a director of admission. I just really enjoy it, so I’m really happy to be here.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Very good. I think before we jump into all kinds of the details, we should probably talk a little bit as we just get started here about the different kinds of residents that we have here. And Sue knows, well, I have this allergic reaction to acronyms and code language and things like that. But IL is, and I’m going to… Since Christina McLaughlin, you’re the one who handles this IL and AL tell us about those two things.
Christina McLaughlin:
Sure. IL stands for Independent Living and AL stands for Assisted Living.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
What would you say is the most important distinction between those two?
Christina McLaughlin:
The biggest distinction between the two is resident that moves into assisted living because they need assistance throughout the day with activities of daily living.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Okay. And then we also have assisted living memory care is right.
Sue Lanza:
Yes. We don’t have it here, but many communities do. Okay. We do have a lot of residents here at the house of the good shepherd that have dementia, but we don’t have a formal memory care area with a secured unit providing the same type of assisted living services, but we’re doing it in an environment that supports social goals and less about the medical model.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Okay. That’s why I was asking it. It was a question.
Sue Lanza:
I know we threw you off. We threw you off.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But we do also have skilled nursing care and also what we call comprehensive care. We’re looking at Christina par to tell us a little bit about those. What’s the diff difference and distinction between those?
Kristina Partika:
Sure. Well, skilled care is our skilled nursing for individuals who really need that higher level of nursing care that 24-hour supervision and our comprehensive personal care. We’re very lucky to have that here. It’s part of our assisted living. It’s certified and licensed for Medicaid. For anyone in need of Medicaid assistance, we have that opportunity to offer as well.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Okay, great. Let’s start with Christina McLaughlin to go into a little more detail. What would you say is a typical person who comes to us to be a resident in independent living?
Christina McLaughlin:
Sure Shawn, a typical, independent living client would be someone who’s currently living in their own home, condo, or apartment that realizes that their current space has just become overwhelming to manage, cleaning maintenance, et cetera. Additionally, a typical client is someone who they might start to feel lonely. They may have lost a spouse or close friends, and they would really benefit from engaging socially in a community setting.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Okay. Yeah. I’m curious, what are the steps involved in all of that? Because my guess is that you get the phone call and then suddenly there’s a whole series of things that have to happen to make that work. Can you describe some of that for us?
Christina McLaughlin:
Sure. When someone inquires about independent living specifically, they may do this typically by phone or email, they may do it through our website. They may do it through a placement agency, many different avenues. I begin by letting them tell me about themselves, their current situation, what they’re looking for and what they expect from a retirement community. I attempt to truly get to know them as a person. This helps me determine initially if we may be a good fit for them, once we establish that I invite them in for a personal tour, I meet with them first and answer any initial questions. Then I provide a tour based specifically on their individual needs, several things factor into that, such as finances, mobility, visual limitations, just to name a few.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
When someone is first making a decision to come here, what’s that inquiry like and how do you respond to that?
Christina McLaughlin:
Sure. When someone typically inquires about independent living by phone or email through the website or through a placement agency, I begin by letting them tell me about themselves, their current situation, what they’re looking for and what they expect from a retirement community. Truly getting to know them as a person. This helps me determine if initially, if we may be a good fit for them or not. Once we establish this, I invite them in for a personal tour. I meet with them first to answer any questions that they might have. And then I provide that tour based on their specific needs. Several things factor into that, such as finances, mobility, visual imitations, just to name a few, sometimes a potential resident, Shawn is looking to just do early research. The process might be different for them. This client may attend our events first before committing to a tour.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, I know from my own experience, because as I’m here at the chapel, there are some people you bring by. I suspect you bring everybody by, but don’t know that everybody necessarily comes in the door because it may or may not be of interest to them. And that’s probably true around the house. Various parts that you visit, that there are levels of interest in what’s going on. Okay. Christine, how long do you typically work with clients? [crosstalk].
Christina McLaughlin:
Sure. The best process is really to meet people where they are and the timeframe for moving can really be anywhere between 30 days to three years for independent living, but consistent follow up is the key to maintaining and nurturing that relationship along the way. Phone calls, emails, invitations cards, et cetera.
Sue Lanza:
Christine, I’m curious because I know you’ve used a number of techniques to try to help clients because this whole move in process is daunting for anybody who’s moved and tried to downsize a little bit. What has your office done to try to help clients manage that terrible process?
Christina McLaughlin:
Absolutely. We really pull out all stops when it comes to us sustaining folks in the move-in process, I find that many people have a difficult time visualizing their current possessions in a vacant apartment. This is especially true. The longer that they’ve been in their home, our model apartments here that we’ve started creating over the past year have been extremely successful in facilitating that process. Over the past year, we’ve had several clients move into one of the models and purchase most if not all of furniture within it. That transition for them became very, very simple part. While some others may have benefited from the visual that they offer to create their new space in incorporating their current possessions. We assist the clients with measuring layouts, decorating assistance. Even I’ll go out to their home if in New Jersey and do some measuring of their current possessions, help them determine what exactly will fit into their new space. We also provide resources such as downsize experts. Those can be someone who is affiliated with the state sales or auctions and they can help set up the entire move-in process.
Sue Lanza:
That’s great. I know you send out notices ahead of time letting all of us know when somebody new is coming into the community, but what things do you guys do to try to make someone feel comfortable? Because it’s so awkward when somebody first comes in.
Christina McLaughlin:
Sue, part of that is really communication is key. I think it goes back to that in everything our residents have a welcome committee. We set up with that welcome committee. They really enjoy making new residents feel welcome. They do a personal phone call, a visit, they introduce them to other residents. Particularly for me personally, I like to go and spend that first day a little while with the resident just to get them acclimated. Some of the things that we go over in the beginning prior to the move in process get lost in the shuffle upon move in day. We provide a welcome gift. We provide an entire binder of resources where to find each person in the building where things are located. The time things are open and closed and walk them through all of those details so that they feel comfortable and understand how we work on a daily basis.
Sue Lanza:
It does make a big deal difference because when you come into a smaller community like this, even though we’re small, it’s overwhelming when you’ve had a situation being at home for the longest time and now all these people are walking down your hallway and you don’t know who they are. That’s great that you do those things.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Let’s switch gears and talk a little bit about the other areas of the house that we have, including skilled nursing and Christina Patika, you’re the one to ask about these. How would you describe a typical client who would want to come here and be a resident in that area?
Kristina Partika:
Well, in our skilled nursing, we have the ability to offer for patients to come in for short term subacute rehab, as well as long term care placement.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Are you going to have to explain subacute? Because as you know, I don’t like the jargon.
Sue Lanza:
I thought you would’ve learned by now. You seem you’re a little slow on this.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I know what it means, but I’m here in the service of our listener.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, you’re testing people. Okay. We get it.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
What’s subacute Christina.
Kristina Partika:
Well, it’s a short stay. For anyone, if they have an acute hospital stay and they need that step down, we have our subacute rehab where they can come in, they have our nursing assistants, they have their therapy. We have our physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists available. It’s really a step down from the hospital back to a transition to return back to their home environment.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
That’s one thing I didn’t realize before I started working here is that they are lots of folks who come here for rehab, but then they go home. It’s not as though everybody who comes through the door, stays here and eventually becomes a long-term resident. It’s actually, there’s a lot of short-term residents as well.
Sue Lanza:
The other thing is there’s another home that we don’t often think about, but when you’re in a continuing care retirement community, some of the residents from different levels go out to the hospital, they come to skilled nursing and then they return to their home, which is independent living or assisted living so we do those transitions as well.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
We do. I know a number of residents in independent living who are really grateful that they were able to do that without having to go some other place.
Sue Lanza:
They know the people here and it makes everything feel much more comfortable. Sure.
Kristina Partika:
It’s a real smooth transition for everyone.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. How do you, as you’re receiving an inquiry from somebody, how do you evaluate whether what we have to offer is appropriate for them?
Kristina Partika:
Oh, of course.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
What they need.
Kristina Partika:
With any referral, we are reviewing both clinically as well as financially. Clinically, we want to assure that we can provide all of their needs, beat all of their needs in our subacute rehab, as well as the financial, just verifying their insurance benefit.
Sue Lanza:
What’s the typical timeframe for someone to come into skilled nursing because I know this is very different. Christina McLaughlin, when she’s doing her IL the independent living or the assisted living, this relationship could be a very long one, could be months, could be years, but in your case you get a referral. What timeframe are we talking about here for somebody to get that referral, but show up in our building.
Kristina Partika:
Quick, very quick. Sometimes if we’re lucky we have a few days, other times it could all happen within 24 hours.
Sue Lanza:
That’s a lot for the family to take in when they’re not expecting in some cases that their loved one is not going straight home. This is a jarring experience for them.
Kristina Partika:
It can be. Many of our families they may be not prepared to make the decision. They’re not familiar with the subacute rehab facilities in the area. It happens very quick and just really just trying to make it a smooth possible for everyone.
Sue Lanza:
And what slows it down? Because I know we have times and we know internally what can slow things down? You get a referral sometimes a week later, it doesn’t go quickly. What are the things that happen sometimes that people might not understand on the outside?
Kristina Partika:
Well, if patient is in the acute hospital, we’re really just waiting for a couple of things. You’re waiting for the discharge order. You might be waiting for insurance to approve the subacute or many times with our case, bed availability. There’s so many factors though, when we do receive a referral, the goal is really to review quickly and respond quickly to the hospital so everyone can help make their decision and then just following on bed availability. Again, it can be a smooth transition for the family, for the hospital and for us as well. We’re prepared to accept a new admission.
Sue Lanza:
Sure. I know one of the things that we wouldn’t have thought of years ago, but it’s been a factor now is COVID tests and the results of a COVID test sometimes have to do with an admission and where they are in their timetable.
Kristina Partika:
Right. One of the things that we are requesting at this time is to have a negative COVID test result to be within 48 hours of discharge. It’s important for the facility. Again, we’re prepared and we have everything in place here.
Sue Lanza:
You have a quicker timetable to deal with. You have less time to try to get some of these factors in play. What do you do in terms of preparing our staff who’s receiving the patient preparing, maybe the resident who you don’t have as much contact with, but preparing the family. What do you do? What are some of your things that you handle?
Kristina Partika:
Many times our communication is with the hospital, social worker. You don’t always have a chance to meet a family member in person. They don’t always have the time to come in and tour our facility, but we do reach out to our families prior to admission, just really to introduce the facility. If they’re not already aware of the House of the Good Shepherd. Many of them, they do not know our address. They’ve never been here before, so just really giving the overview, letting them know what they can bring in, letting them know about our visiting hours and of course our phone numbers so they can reach specific departments, especially our nurses station.
Sue Lanza:
Sure. And just even what you need in terms of signing some of your admission paperwork and they have to bring in copies of cards, if we don’t have them. People don’t realize that we need all those things like advanced directives and living wills.
Kristina Partika:
Yeah, we do. There are so many important documents and again, not having that relationship over some time, you’re really scrambling at the last minute to obtain everything. Insurance card are really important to have on file. If there’s any of those important documents, like you said, power of attorney, advance directive, we’re really trying to gather those documents very quickly to have in place. Of course, there’s always that paperwork.
Sue Lanza:
I know both of you do a great job with having the great people skills to deal with people where they are, as you said, Christina McLaughlin. Because they’re going through a major transition in their life. In some cases on the IL, AL side, it’s taking a little, little longer, so maybe there’s more time to digest on yours, Kristina Partika, it’s a little bit faster. I know you do a lot of things to try to help people get through that, but there’s a lot of stress that we see. What kinds of things do you see necessarily that people come in with in terms of the stress of a family member?
Kristina Partika:
Oh, sure. Well, it’s really just understanding clinically where they are in now. They’ve had an acute hospital stay. There’s been a change in status, a decline, possibly, really just trying to understand, getting things prepared for discharge as well.
Sue Lanza:
One of the things Christina Partica I wanted to just ask, because this is a strange thing. People assume that they have to bring in furniture thing into skilled care.
Kristina Partika:
Oh, no. We have everything. Our rooms are able to accommodate a single occupancy right now thing. We have the hospital bed, we have the bed linens and all the toiletries. I do encourage patients to bring in their own personal clothing. Anything that will make them feel good when they feel good, they’ll feel better in therapy and have good goals.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. Good outcomes. Right? Yeah.
Kristina Partika:
Just any personal items that will help make them feel more comfortable.
Sue Lanza:
Christina McLaughlin, what’s the difference in independent living and assisted living with the furniture situation?
ChristinaMcLaughlin:
Independent living and assisted living. They’re really the same in terms of the furniture that we want the residents to bring their own things from home so that they are surrounded by familiar items that make them feel more comfortable and make that transition a lot easier.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Let’s return to the question of assisted living. I’m curious, how does that fit into the various levels of service? My sense of assisted living is that it’s in the middle. On the one hand, what we offer here is a spectrum from independent living to skilled nursing and the level of care increases as you get closer to skill of nursing. Assisted living’s right in the middle of that. Tell us more about that. How does that fit into the scheme of things.
Christina McLaughlin:
Assisted living comes into play. As I mentioned earlier, when a resident begins to need assistance throughout the day or night with their activities of daily living, this would be bathing, dressing, meal preparation, taking medications, et cetera. We provide all of those services and assisted living to all their meals, housekeeping transportation, so we are able to meet those needs that they’re currently lacking in their current level of service, whether it be at home or in our independent living and the introduction and move in process for assisted living is very similar to independent living. It’s getting to know the potential resident, but also focuses on the clinical aspect because there are some needs there. In the case of assisted living, we are most often dealing with the family members themselves or elder law attorneys or physicians, placement agencies versus the resident themselves.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
For someone to added to assisted living. How long does that typically take in your experience?
Christina McLaughlin:
Anywhere between 48 hours to a few weeks, if someone has a critical need and we have availability, we can move pretty quick there. If they’re doing due diligence and seeking out all of their options, it could take a couple of weeks also depending on availability.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Can you describe the steps that are involved in someone coming into assisted living? What would they need to do first? And then through that.
Christina McLaughlin:
Very similar to skilled nursing there’s paperwork that’s involved in independent living as well, but specifically for assisted living, there’s a clinical piece of that. There is a physician’s assessment that is completed by their personal doctor or the doctor that’s overseeing their care currently because they may be coming from a rehab situation or from the hospital.
There’s also a financial application that’s completed because they need to be able to qualify, to pay for their stay during assisted living and onto any other levels of care. Those are the two key pieces that we look at initially, if needed, if can gain enough information from the physician’s assessment, if we can move the person in and provide their level of care based on that. Sometimes we may need to take another step further and maybe do an in-person assessment or a virtual assessment of that person to make sure that we can indeed meet their clinical needs.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. Imagine it’s similar to how you answered the question earlier, but in terms of integrating someone into the community here for assisted living, preparing people as they’re getting ready to come here, tell us a little about that.
Christina McLaughlin:
There are some differences between the assisted living process and the independent living process. Mainly you’re dealing oftentimes with denial based on the resident themselves or based on the family member. My mom was fine at home. She doesn’t need that much help. The resident themselves may think that they don’t need the services of assisted living. There could be some agitation that on the part of the family member or the resident themselves in making that transition a very difficult move. There is a lot more nurturing and handholding throughout that process. Oftentimes there isn’t an independent living nursing team is much more involved, obviously in that process. Oftentimes Shawn, you’re involved in that process to help folks walk through the waters of a major life change.
Sue Lanza:
I think a lot has to do too with just the expectations on both ends, making sure everybody’s clear, this is what’s going to be different than when you were at home and maybe you had a home caregiver or maybe you were alone and this is what we can do. This is what we can’t do. And sometimes that’s a trial and error to get people to the comfortable level where they really understand it.
Expectations are not, I really feel like they go above and beyond to try to do all kinds of things that you wouldn’t think would be the things we doing, like ironing, curtains, and rearranging closets and stuff because they really care about the residents and they want them to be happy if that makes them happy.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, and assuming you and I have talked about any number of times in the podcast, that those of us who work here work in someone else’s home.
Sue Lanza:
Correct.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It’s vitally important for us to bear that in mind, as we engage with our residents, that we’re not a neutral territory, it’s their home. Being really respectful of all of that, I think, is paramount in what we do.
Sue Lanza:
Sure. I have a couple more questions that popped up Kristina Partika what tips would you give to residents and families who are starting this whole journey of even considering a senior living in community?
Kristina Partika:
The biggest tip I would say is to just start touring early.
Sue Lanza:
Right.
Kristina Partika:
Just to have a sense of communities, the facilities around the area. Some we have very subtle differences, but just a tour. When a family member does come in, sometimes they do have a feeling right away of this is where they would want to be or would want their loved one to be. Just touring in advance. Many times there’s an emergency need and then decisions are really made quickly. They have a chance to tour even if they’re not ready, they’re looking for a family member. They’re looking for a friend, anyone to come and tour early see what we’re all about.
Sue Lanza:
Right. I know. I think that’s one of the fallacies that it’s back to what Christie McLaughlin said. It’s denial about where mom really is in her journey, who wants to go touring places? Mom doesn’t need that, but in reality, to get ahead of it and be a little more proactive would be the right move. Christina McLaughlin. How has COVID impacted all your touring and visitation to the community? I know now we have more open visitation reading changes constantly in the last couple years. What do you do to work around that?
ChristinaMcLaughlin: We really have to get creative with tours and events and things that we’re doing here on the campus. We offer virtual tours. We offer virtual visits, whether it be prerecorded or whether it’s a live virtual through face time. We have adopted an application on our phones that we can provide some professional looking virtual tours that the future resident gets that opportunity to see the community very similar to, as they would in person the same thing with events, we’ve done some virtual events over Zoom, so that potential residents have an opportunity to see the community and see what we’re all about from an event standpoint and activity standpoint, without stepping foot on the campus.
Sue Lanza:
And it’s a lot of those touch points. We talked about relationship building. A lot of that is just multiple contacts and different formats. They may attend an event. Then they talk to you on the phone. Then they might meet the other Christina or they meet Shawn and all, these are another opportunity to see our community thriving and get to know a little bit more about us. So they feel comfortable when they get here.
Christina McLaughlin:
Exactly.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, I know from talking to some of the residents that they actually encountered the House of the Good Shepherd because they came here for rehab. So they had a knee replacement or hip replacement, came here for whatever period of time they needed to. In that short period of time, whatever it was, we apparently made a good impression on them. Then they end up coming back when the time comes that they really do need some more assistance and they don’t want to shovel the snow and they don’t want to mow lawn.
Sue Lanza:
Right.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
All those things that-
Sue Lanza:
Well, they remember the care and the compassionate care that out while they were here, they returned to it because they’re hoping to have that happen again.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
… Exactly. I’m curious, Christina, you said you, Christina Partica you talked about trying to tour places. One of the things I’m aware of is that it seems as we were talking a little bit earlier, we encounter people who don’t know they need to be here.
Sue Lanza:
All the time.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And they actually needed to be here some time ago. If they had had a little bit of support along the way, they would probably be in a much better position in terms of their physical health and other sorts of things. What do you do to encourage people to come check out what we have to offer here? Touring, I know that’s part of it but have you found any times when you’re able to say to somebody, you really should come check it out now don’t wait months from now?
Kristina Partika:
Yeah. Many times when families do come in, they are surprised to hear that we do have the other levels of care as well. Someone coming in, looking at skills, they don’t even realize that we have our assisted living. Other family members who have had family members within the other levels of care, they might be familiar and now they’re looking for someone else just coming to the events, they come to an event, then they can tour the facility and meet the staff.
Sue Lanza:
I think a lot of people also mentioned that they had a family member who was here. Some of them say my grandmother was here. My aunt, my great aunt was here. You’d be amazed at how many generations this goes back. We hire here 139 years now, but this year it’ll be 140. There is that longevity of an experience that passes on literally from generation to generations. We banked on that and we love that. We love hearing that.
Kristina Partika:
Oh sure. We love when our families come back.
Sue Lanza:
Sure it’s the best way to have a referral is from a happy customer from the past. I want to thank everybody. I think we had an amazing chat and just got some general ideas of things. So I want to thank both Christina’s, Christina Partica the director of admissions for skilled and Christina McLaughlin, who is the sales and marketing director for assisted living and independent living. Thank you both for being here. Of course, Shawn, it’s always nice to have you available to me at all times. I do enjoy that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Glad to be part of the picture here too.
Sue Lanza:
Yes.
Kristina Partika:
Thank you for having us.
Sue Lanza:
We’re signing off from House Guest. I’m Sue.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I’m Shawn.
Kristina Partika:
Kristina Partika.
ChristinaMcLaughlin:
Christina McLaughlin.
Sue Lanza:
Yay. Thanks everybody. See you next time.
Kristina Partika:
Thank you.
Sue Lanza:
Bye. Thanks for listening to an episode of House Guests, the podcast, which is dedicated to all great things about the House of the Good Shepherd, a retirement community in Hackettstown New Jersey. To learn more about us, please visit our website HOTGS.org. Thanks for listening. See you next time.