The Bridges Program at The Arbor Company

Video Transcript

Speaker 1:
We have some residents that are sort of in the middle. They're not quite ready for memory care, but they are having challenges in assisted living. So those residents, we have a specialized neighborhood and a program for them to be able to thrive.

Speaker 2:
The Bridges neighborhood is just so unique. So many families are scared to take this step into memory care and often it's because they don't feel like their family members may be as advanced as they're used to seeing in memory care. So having that Bridges in between neighborhood or at least engagement programming allows the resident to get what they need, be with their peers, maintain their dignity, and also allows the family to make an easier decision with less guilt or worry or fear.

Speaker 3:
My mom has dementia and she's not at the full stage of it, but you can tell it is kind of early onset of it and she struggles with certain things, she'll forget things that happened not too long ago. She gets stressed and it seems to bring it on a little bit stronger, but she's fully capable of doing lots of things for herself. We made a decision to come up here to Arbor since day one. I mean, it's been a great experience. It's like we walked into a five star hotel, no smoke and mirrors. It's really what it is. They have lots of activities for her to do and just keep her mind going and her mind focused. To see her come out of her shell again and reopen those doors has been great.

Speaker 2:
Bridges is really about being with your cognitive peers. So what that means is our residents who maybe have mild cognitive impairment are able to be in a neighborhood with residents who are right where they are in their dementia journey, and then if their dementia progresses and their cognitive status declines, they are able to transition to our memory care neighborhood. So it's a great in between. We find that so many people are scared of what dementia care looks like and Bridges allows them to slowly go through the process as their body is slowly going through the process of dementia.

Speaker 4:
We have residents that may be living in our assisted living and they're starting to show some memory impairment issues, usually pretty mild, but they're having a hard time managing the course of the day. And in our Bridges program, we have additional staff to help residents maybe make selections for dinner. Maybe they can't recall what they want to eat or what they prefer to eat. A staff member will help them make those choices. So it's just a little bit of extra support. We also have our staff trained in cognitive care so they understand those little changes.

Speaker 5:
One of the things that's really important is to make sure that people are assessed to live where they're going to be the most successful. There's clinical assessments, which are your medical needs, but we also assess people on where they are cognitively, and this helps us understand where they need to be and how we can individualize their care to be successful, and for our team members to know how to interact and how much assistance somebody needs and how much we can continue to let them do on their own, which is the most important.

Speaker 6:
We had looked at several places around the area and when we looked at Arbor, we were very impressed. I think what really makes this place unique is the type of community that it is, and that the people who work here are very much a part of the community. They know the residents, they are here for the long haul, and you can tell that when you walk in through the doors. There's just a general feeling of, "I can breathe now. I can breathe a sigh of relief so that when I leave my parents here, I feel they're going to be okay."

Speaker 2:
To just age in place in that assisted living apartment, when really your cognitive peers are in Bridges or memory care means that you are not getting what's best for you. So aging in the right place means making that transition to Bridges or making that transition to memory care to make sure that you are in the right setting, with the right team, with the right training, and the right care to be successful. And that's important to us.

Speaker 7:
Our Bridges program is residents that need a little bit more structure, need a little bit more guidance, need a little bit more support. We're going to help them be successful by establishing a routine for them. The Bridges program was designed to center towards the individuals living there, so it's a area that will keep them from feeling isolated maybe from other assisted living residents that aren't experiencing memory loss. It's also a smaller program. In assisted living, they can kind of choose when they come to an activity, but in Bridges, we're going to make sure that they're not missing the fun.

Speaker 2:
We meet weekly in the communities and we discuss any residents who have maybe had a cognitive status change, are having difficulty at a meal. Maybe they're not eating as much of their meal anymore, and that could be a trigger that maybe things aren't going so well for them. But if it's not something that's an intervention based and it's really a cognitive status has changed, we talk with the families, we share our concerns, we share our feedback. It's really a group understanding of what the right next step is for that resident to stay in an environment where they feel dignified, they feel cared for, and they feel like just one of their peers because they're in the right place.

Speaker 3:
Once I got her into a community that could actually help her, and it's not me or my brothers running around, trying to figure out how to rework our schedule... You'll do anything for your parents, but it's tough. And while you're doing all that, you're running around with your head cut off sometimes, you lose that bond that you have with them. It's a huge difference. Now when we come, we're not coming to visit, to do all these chores, and to make sure this is happening, and you're just running around getting everything done to make sure that they're safe and healthy. Now you're able to come and visit and have that time and conversation with them now. There's no doubt this was a great choice for us.