Hospital Authority receives approval for $50,000 grant dedicated to aid those with Alzheimer’s
Courtesy of Presbyterian SeniorCare
A rendering of Woodside Place, Presbyterian SeniorCare’s dementia-care community in South Strabane Township
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Construction is underway on Woodside Place, Presbyterian SeniorCare’s dementia-care community in South Strabane Township.
The building is already going up, and Presbyterian SeniorCare has taken another step toward funding what it is calling a dementia-specific personal care community at its Washington campus in South Strabane Township.
The Washington County board of commissioners on Thursday adopted a resolution approving a $50,000 grant by the Washington County Hospital Authority to Presbyterian SeniorCare to help build the standalone facility.
Presbyterian SeniorCare bills the $9 million project, known as Woodside Place of Washington, as a state-of-the art residential Alzheimer’s care community modeled after Woodside Place of Oakmont, Allegheny County, which opened in 1991.
The Oakmont facility was a departure from what had been the norm for residents living with dementia, who were often mixed within a general skilled-nursing population in buildings reminiscent of hospitals. Because of their behaviors and tendency to wander, residents with dementia were often physically restrained or treated with drugs.
Woodside Place of Oakmont was based on a prototype in Birmingham, England, that aimed to reduce residents’ agitation with an open-design concept that allowed them to move about in a secure area.
“We’re raising $3 million and we have $2.5 million already,” said Jacqueline S. Flanagan, executive director of the Presbyterian SeniorCare Foundation in a phone interview Thursday.
“The more money we raise and the less we have to finance allows us to accommodate more low-income individuals, which is part of our mission.”
The new, two-story building will have 36 beds for those who live there permanently along with facilities to accommodate 15 who are part of adult day services, according to Flanagan.
The full-time and day care residents will each have their own enclosed outdoor area.
Rather than placing residents on a schedule, the staff will be trained to adjust to the needs of residents.
Technology to be incorporated into the new building includes shadow boxes that contain familiar objects or images that, when residents are outside their rooms, will activate a bracelet residents wear to alert them that they have arrived. Circadian lighting is designed to improve both daytime wakefulness and quality of sleep, and quiet agitation known as “sundowning.”
“We hope to have it open by early fall,” Flanagan said of the new building. “We have had some weather delays.”
Presbyterian SeniorCare Network already has designated wings for those with Alzheimer’s and dementia within its Southminster Place personal care home – known as a “Woodside neighborhood” and Southmont nursing facility in South Strabane Township. These wings are typically 100 percent occupied, and the network has had to decline referrals because it lacks available beds.
Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia afflict approximately half of senior citizens 85 years of age and older.
Pennsylvania ranks fourth in the nation by number of residents over age 85.