Beth Robertson, Executive Director of Opus East Memphis, joins us to talk about the differences between rental-style senior living and buy-in senior living. She also shares ways to identify when it may be time to make the move to assisted living, what options you should look for, and how Opus East Memphis is flexible depending on your needs.
Video Transcript
Hi everyone, and welcome to Senior Living Live. My name is Mary Cate Spires and we are on location in East Memphis at a beautiful upcoming community Opus East Memphis. And I am sitting here with its executive director, Beth Robertson. Hello. Hi. Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you for having me.
And we have had such a good time here. We were lucky enough to come in yesterday and meet some of your fabulous residents. Yes. And I'm excited to talk to you today a little bit more. Just about senior living. So getting started. Why don't you just tell me a little bit about yourself and your background in senior living?
Oh, okay. So I started in Senior living in 2006. I was actually at a CCRC and was in the marketing side. I kind of got recruited from when I was being a salesperson, calling on their H.R. department and got recruited into senior living. Spent about six years there with them and to date myself a little bit. It was before really, memory care was even thought about the freestanding memory cares.
So spent time doing the sales and marketing side. Went on to be a regional in sales and marketing for the same company. Dipped my toe into the acute rehab. So have a little bit of the knowledge in regards to rehab with occupational therapy and such, and then spent the last about five six years in operations side because even though I love the sales marketing side and getting to know all of the new residents and families, I wanted to know more of how could I make it better where they were living?
So switched over to the operations side and kind of here I am.
It's fantastic. Well, I know all the residents here are going to be so lucky to have you. So I know we've talked a lot this week about the different options someone can get into senior living, especially when they're starting from an independent living standpoint. I know there are especially a lot of options in this market. And something we talked about yesterday of some of your residents is, you know, a buy in versus a rental.
And I'm sure a lot of our listeners also have seen those two different options. So can you kind of talk me through what they both are and then, of course, the difference between them?
Sure. Yeah. So in the senior living industry, you have really two different options. You're going to look at what you call a with the buy in. You can look at the CCRC or life care option, and then you have the rental side as well. So with a CCRC, which is for Continuing Care Retirement Community or a life care, they have a entry fee.
Most people, their words that they would use would say that they have a large financial commitment for the buy in option for the CCRC. With the Life plan and the CCRC, they have independent living, assisted living memory care, and most of them have a skilled component, a nursing home. So you stay there throughout the continuum with that community. With a rental community such as Opus, we have a community fee that you pay upfront, usually within the rental aspect of senior in the senior living industry. It could be anywhere from $1,000 1500 dollars. Ours is ten thousand and fifteen thousand. But then you pay a monthly fee and so that monthly fee takes care of all of your services that you need. Some communities, again, that's one of the differences, is some include meals, some don't.
Most include housekeeping, utilities, transportation. And then it also includes all the activities that are going on within that community. So a bigger difference also is some people with a rental community and some of our residents, we've we've talked to them about it too, is come spend your time here at Opus. You want to go to Florida for six months out of the year, go to Florida.
You could spend your time here or if you're here at Opus, and then someone decided, you know what, I really want to go live with my daughter in Florida. They just give a 30 day notice and they they leave. So it makes it a little bit more flexible for people as well.
Absolutely. Definitely not as big of a upfront commitment. Right. Plus a lot more flexibility with the funds you do have. And then, of course, what you're paying. Mm hmm. Tell me. I've always wondered with that a CCRC and a buy in. What is the benefit of that big upfront investment? Mm hmm. What does that. What does that mean?
The biggest upfront with it, with the investment is that you have a home for life. So you're you're banking on or trying to look at the fact of I'm going to go ahead and pay this upfront fee. And then later on in life, if I need a nursing home, it's already there. I've kind of already chosen that place.
But the thing with the industry now, even like in the state of Tennessee, assisted living can offer so many different levels of care anymore. And then you also have memory care that provides even a higher level of assistance for someone that the nursing home component may not be as big of a factor. Everybody says, I don't want to go to a nursing home.
So it just depends on that person and kind of what they're thinking. You know, do I want to go ahead and plan and and think I'm going to be able to go to this nursing home or not? But again, most people say, no, I don't want to go. So being able to maintain probably in assisted living is the biggest factor for a lot of people being able to be an independent living.
Maybe add on some home health, you know, or just assistance with a shower maybe every day. You know, you don't need to go into assisted living. But when you do the levels of care that are there may be able to maintain you till end of life.
Can you talk more about that, those care changes? And as someone say at Opus, you know, they move in and their needs change. How does your or will your team help them through those transitions and, you know, still make it a place where they can be? Mm hmm.
It's it's very important for me as the executive director to be able to have discussions with the resident. As long as, you know, they're able to have those discussions with and or family and be able to really talk to them to say we're seeing some changes. It may be the housekeeper is starting to see some changes in the apartment.
It could be our dining staff that's starting to see a decrease in appetite. Or maybe they're not even coming down to eat and being able to report those things back. So we as a team can talk about it and maybe just kind of watch and see. But definitely having those conversations with the family, with the resident of maybe now is the time to transition to assisted living, or maybe now is a time to add on a few services in your, you know, independent living cottage or apartment so you can maintain longer and it can be this little, you know, little simple changes.
Maybe, maybe you don't need every biweekly housekeeping. Maybe we need to start doing some weekly housekeeping or see if there's some laundry services that we could add on because, you know, maybe some of those little, little things are not getting done or assistance with a shower. So it's just really about the communication and the team for Opus will be very involved in making sure that we we talk about, you know, our residents and helping them identify anything that they need.
And for me from that answer, if I if I were looking for senior living, that would be something that I would definitely want to ask that question of what's that going to look like in the future? Yes. Are there any other big questions or advice that you would give to someone who's in that research process and comparing communities - what to look for?
I think it's very important. You know, you tell people to go and look at other communities and to really research the information. Of course, you know, finance, this is going to be something that everybody's going to look at and everybody's going to consider. Do they have long term care? You know, that's one of the components. But is, you know, thinking about the people that you come in and interact with.
I usually try to be very involved as the executive director. I want to know. So it's important to know who the executive director is at other communities that you're looking at. You know, are they involved, you know, and go in and see and look around and get that kind of feel for that community? Because it's kind of like a house and a husband.
Sometimes when you walk into one or you see one, you know, immediately. And it's it's the same thing with with senior living.
I love that... I’m going to quote you on that everywhere. Oh, my goodness. Fantastic. Well, I cannot thank you enough for taking a little bit of time out of your day to sit down with us. Thank you all for watching. You can find this video and more like it on senior living live dot com for all your educational needs around senior living.
And also if you are in the East Memphis area and in the market for senior living, definitely come check out this beautiful community, Opus East Memphis. Beth and her team will take very good care of you. And you can find more information about this community at OpusEastMemphis.com. Bye everyone.
