Willow Brook Christian Communities

Title: Teri Ryan of Willow Brook Christian Communities
Time: 5 min 1 sec

Description:

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Transcript:

more and more people are becoming members of what's known as the Sandwich Generation and by that I mean someone's still taking care of their own children while also caring for an aging parent or a loved one it's a difficult challenge especially when memory loss disorders like Alzheimer's disease are involved here with advice about retirement and long-term care facilities is Terry Ryan Terry is a Community Relations Director community relations for a little Christian communities Terry welcome thank you here is to have you with us today tell us a little bit about Willowbrook first of all as we get started Willowbrook is a not-for-profit group of continuing care retirement communities in Central Ohio that provide the entire continuum of care for somebody for a person or a couple who come in in retirement years to have a wonderful time with people who are like them and thoroughly enjoying their lives but knowing that should they ever need more care down the road it's available for them right there so we have assisted living memory cares field nursing even it don't they care and you've got multiple locations around central all right we have three campuses in central Ohio that's awesome now talk about some of the services that you offer specifically as they pertain to memory care and that type of thing memory care is a very very special kind of care that is given to people who have Alzheimer's disease or other memory disorders and part of what makes Willowbrook unique with with what we provide are two things and that is freedom and choices people who bring their family member to memory care at Willowbrook for them for the most part have decided that while they would truly love to be able to care for them at home it just isn't going to work out because it is a very very exhausting and draining experience so when that happens we come in or they come in to us and we become their second family and just like just like you would hope of a family member our staff gets to know the people who come in and once we get acquainted with their likes and dislikes that they don't like to go to bed at 10 o'clock at night if they like to stay up until 3:00 a.m. watching movies they can do that and they won't miss breakfast if they sleep in in the more also we have the buildings designed for people to be able to wander around which with Alzheimer's disease is a very important feature so that we have a track where people can go around the track stop at a park bench and you know keep on going for as long as they want to and we're designed to accommodate that we pay a real special attention to what people need that specific person and with that in mind Terry so many families try to do this at home want to do it at home maybe the patient involved wants to stay at home as long as possible how do you counsel families on you know when it's okay to say you know what we're here for you if if you need us well you know we support people who want to be able to stay at home because we have a you know retirement communities we have people who live in our independent apartments or in our twin single homes who have a who have a spouse who has a memory disorder and we work with them as closely as we can to enable them to stay together in their home as long as possible when they decide and usually it's just that the caregiver is exhausted but when they decide that maybe they should be looking at some other alternative part of what we're able to do is that we have one of the best on your ologists in central Ohio who comes to our memory care center once a month and so we're able to perhaps get a family to be able to talk to someone more quickly than they'd be able to do if they were to wait for an appointment which can be a very very long wait in central Ohio because there aren't that many Alzheimer specialists and there may be some people watching this morning how how would you advise them as to when they should start to consider a more skilled facility to maybe take their loved one - I think that there are people out there who can keep their loved one at home all the time with some support services where we come in is where the when the caregiver says I'm exhausted I can't do this anymore I can't stay up all night because of fear that someone is going to you know the my loved one is going to wander away or I'm not able to handle the behavioral change and it is purely an individual choice and some families that point comes earlier than other families and some points it doesn't come at all but we're there to help and we'll be happy to counsel and to bring other ideas and support services in and let's very quickly just how did they get in touch with you I think we have well we don't have we have your website up there I see a website their phone number maybe yes the main number for Willowbrook is area code 201 perfect Terry thank you very much appreciate your time some good information there