As the chapters of life unfold, the question of assisted living arises. When we start experiencing difficulty in everyday life, that signals a need to transition toward a supportive yet fulfilling lifestyle. Assisted living seems a daunting prospect that appears to limit the life we want to live.
However, assisted living is anything but. Assisted living empowers us to live freely and to the fullest. Assisted living and the care communities that offer it foster connection, peace of mind, and wellness so you can enjoy your highest quality of life and social connection within a vibrant community.
Let’s delve deeper into the top five benefits of assisted living at Cogir Senior Living. When supported in the proper care communities, residents experience a blend of enriching activities, safety, caregiver aid, and intellectual stimulation.
Our journey begins with recognizing when it’s time for assisted living and carries us through discovering the quality and care offered at Cogir Senior Living. Let’s embark on Maria Riveria’s journey through her best senior living.
Maria Riveria is a mother of two children and a proud grandmother of five grandchildren. She’s lived in her rural home for over 30 years and loves how close she is to her eight sisters. She loves all things Western, from classic cowboy movies to line dancing to old country music. She never considered retirement communities or any senior housing. Her mother never used assisted living, so why should she look at a continuing care retirement community?
Ever since her husband passed away a decade ago, gardening has uplifted Maria Riveria’s life. As her knees stiffened and her balance diminished, she gritted her teeth and knelt for her garden. Maria was so used to independent living that she ignored the signs until she fell in her garden and couldn’t get up.
When is it Time for Assisted Living? Recognizing the Signs
Maria crawled to her nearby garage, where her phone was, and called her daughter for help. Thankfully, her daughter was close by and quickly helped. Maria, as we so often do, instinctively downplayed her needs. However, as her daughter cleaned up her minor scrapes, she thought of the residential assisted living community one of her sisters currently enjoys.
Maria realized she had difficulty with daily living activities. She was fine with dressing, bathing, and eating, but her mobility had diminished. She also struggled with her diabetes, a chronic health problem for many. When her daughter is in town, it’s easy to manage medication, but without her, the half a dozen prescriptions become confusing and overwhelming. She often forgets weekly dosages, causing her to feel ill without realizing the cause. All these conditions can be managed with the right assisted living community.
While Maria loves the peaceful, natural surroundings of her rural home, it can make her feel isolated. Her sisters are facing their own problems with their independent living, which makes it difficult to socialize.
Maria never had a caregiver, but caregiver burnout is another sign supporting the need for assisted living. Caregiver responsibilities often fall on immediate family members, like adult children. While it’s important to step up and help out, it’s also important to balance responsibilities. Being a family member’s primary caregiver can cause stress and fatigue and lead to neglecting our own health.
We all want the best for our family members, but we are not trained professionals. Sometimes, the best thing we can do is seek out help. In this case, it is finding the ideal continuing care retirement community that supports Maria’s senior living.
Finding Quality Assisted Living: The Cogir Senior Living Difference
Maria did not know much about assisted living homes or what to look for in a senior living community. However, one of her sisters recommended Cogir for their holistic approach to wellness. So, Maria chose a senior community focusing on mind, body, and community.
Cogir Senior Living aims to support all residents without sacrificing their freedom. Every transition is difficult, but Cogir’s care communities make it easier by seamlessly blending high-quality care with social engagement.
You’ve worked all your life; now it’s time to focus on living freely and independently. Let the highly trained staff care for daily chores and your unique health needs so you can pursue your passions and interests. Enjoy a low-maintenance lifestyle. Maria likes the sound of that. With the help of her family, Maria moves into a senior assisted living community.
Top five benefits
1) Finding Quality Assisted Living: The Cogir Senior Living Difference
Maria now lives in a spacious studio apartment. After making coffee, she tends to a raised garden bed, an amenity common at Cogir Senior Living. Her senior community offers three meals a day prepared by skilled culinary teams.
After breakfast, she explores the open patio spaces around the residential assisted living campus. She discovers a communal garden with residents passionately tending to various beautiful flowers. Maria joins in and quickly bonds with her fellow residents. They are part of a garden club, one of the many social programs assisted living homes have to offer.
Her senior living community offers everything from book clubs to choirs to classes to sports. There is truly something for everyone in her senior community.
Later that afternoon, Maria tags along on a group shopping visit. The retirement home offers scheduled transportation for fun outings. Today, they are going to a local nursery to peruse the beautiful flowers they can add to the senior community’s garden.
Maria enjoys a professionally served dinner at one of the senior community’s outdoor covered patios. Afterward, she lounges on a rocking chair and admires the sunset, just as she did before transitioning to assisted living. After the sun disappears below the horizon, a fellow resident invites her to the on-site movie theater. Maria’s face lights up when she learns they’re watching a classic cowboy movie tonight.
2) Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle: Wellness Support at Every Turn.
Socialization is a key aspect of senior living, but how else do retirement communities support wellness? Each resident of assisted living receives a personalized care plan geared toward their specific needs. For Maria, her diabetes can be managed with nutritious dining options.
Residential assisted living hosts a wide variety of fitness programs. Maria was never an athlete, which makes her perfect for Cogir Senior Living’s INTUNE fitness program. This program offers approachable exercises such as Chair Chi and mall walking. It also offers group fitness classes and open gym time with state-of-the-art equipment.
Maria likes all things Western, so she attends line dancing classes. As her mobility improves, it ignites her competitiveness. Her grandchildren would describe her as the sweetest grandmother, but they haven’t seen her play chair volleyball yet. Playing with a team is a great way to meet others. The matching T-shirts add to the team spirit. Later this year, Maria hopes to compete in the annual chair volleyball tournament that the local retirement communities host.
3) Safety, Security, and Peace of Mind: Ensuring Resident Comfort and Confidence
Assisted living is more than an apartment with on-site support; it’s a care community that provides comprehensive safety and security. Assisted living aims to make you feel safe and comfortable with your abilities and surroundings.
Fall prevention is a safety standard in most senior living communities. However, Cogir’s care communities are implementing a program called Safely You. It involves installing cameras in rooms to detect falls. If the thought of cameras within private rooms concerns you, then you’re not alone. The engineers behind Safely You programmed the cameras to delete footage every seven seconds if there is no fall detected.
Safely You only saves footage if it detects a fall so caregivers can see what caused it. So far, participating care communities have reduced falls by 40% and fall-related ER visits by 80%. Maria’s diabetes increases her risk of falls. So when she does fall, the Safely You system quickly alerts the assisted living staff. They respond in under two minutes, compared to the industry average of 40 minutes!
Cogir’s care communities’ on-site nurses and physical therapists treat conditions as they arise. They review the footage, and with Maria’s help, they change her environment to be safer. Thanks to the on-site nurse, Maria discovered that most of her symptoms were caused by her not managing her diabetes.
The assisted living staff now manages and monitors Maria’s medication. She no longer worries about whether or not she takes her daily meds. The helpful staff at the assisted living homes also helps schedule her doctor visits. She trusts them to remember and even provide scheduled transportation for her appointments.
4) Expert Caregiver Aid and Support: Compassionate Assistance When You Need It Most
Something that sets Cogir Senior Living apart from other care communities is their large network. Cogir is a large management company with decades of experience successfully running retirement homes in Canada. They recently expanded in the United States and now manage over 60 care communities!
One of Cogir’s advantages is the vast resources they provide to their staff through training. They know people make the difference, so they invest heavily in training and recruiting top-notch personnel. The dedicated caregivers at Cogir Senior Living provide personalized care tailored to your unique needs.
Their help goes beyond laundry, cooking, and housekeeping and into companion care. Transitioning into senior assisted living can be difficult. Companion care can offer an empathetic ear. Companion care sometimes takes the form of emotional support animals, lighting up the senior living community.
5) Intellectual Stimulation and Lifelong Learning: Nurturing Curiosity and Engagement
Keeping an active mind is vital for a high quality of life. For example, did you know that seniors who participate in cognitive activities have a 47% less chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease than people who don’t? For that study, cognitive activities included reading, going to museums, and playing puzzle games. Retirement communities often provide plenty of group brain teaser exercises such as group crosswords, jeopardy, and trivia.
Residents like Maria also expand their horizons outside of the senior living community through local events. Some areas host local “food trails” to showcase the diverse cuisine they have to offer. Maria can try new foods she otherwise wouldn’t have access to, such as Sushi, African, and Thai.
Some retirement communities, like the Tribute at One Loudoun, host art expos. Residents can display their passions for all to see. One such art expo inspired Maria to attend one of her senior community’s art classes. She’s never been much of an artist but enjoys the opportunity for self-expression nonetheless.
That’s good for her because research shows that learning new skills like painting or quilting can improve memory in older adults. When care communities offer these kinds of activities, they improve our quality of life.
Conclusion.
Before experiencing the benefits of a senior living community, Maria Riveria thought assisted living was just senior apartments. However, she learned that senior care homes empower residents to live their best lives. Like the flowers in her garden, Maria’s passions, interests, and curiosity blossom under the tender care of Cogir Senior Living.
That concludes our exploration of the top five benefits of assisted living at Cogir Senior Living. Envision yourself living a life filled with vitality, connection, and care within a vibrant community
To embark on your own journey, reach out via our contact page.
What sets Cogir apart is the company’s devoted approach to creating healthy, vibrant communities that offer residents exceptional independent living, assisted living, and memory care lifestyle options. Cogir Senior Living develops, owns, and/or operates 60 lifestyle communities throughout the United States. With a focus on enriching activities, healthy lifestyle support, safety, caregiver aid, and intellectual stimulation, Cogir Senior Living is committed to providing residents with a fulfilling and empowering living experience tailored to their individual needs and preferences. For more information, visit www.CogirSeniorLiving.com.
