Manor to build Alzheimer's unit

The owner of the Manor at Elfindale Inc., a 66-bed skilled nursing facility at 1707 W. Elfindale, will build a 17,000-square-foot, $1.8 million addition to serve the needs of residents with Alzheimer's disease.

Vetter Health Services, holding company of the Manor and 31 other facilities like it, was selected with four other long-term care facilities in the area to participate in the Missouri Alzheimer's Demonstration Project. The project is a Division of Aging pilot program that provides for 300 new beds for Alzheimer's patients in Missouri skilled nursing facilities, according to Vetter Health Services President Jack Vetter.

The company hopes to break ground for the addition in spring or summer 2001 and be open by December 2001 or early 2002, Vetter said. He said because of the many requests for an Alzheimer's unit at the Manor, Vetter Health Services had considered building one there for awhile.

"There has been a vast amount of interest for an Alzheimer's unit (at the Manor). We have a really unique campus, and we don't like people to leave there any more than necessary. I know of one gentleman who is a resident of the Manor who actually realizes he has the disease and doesn't want to have to have to leave there and go to a different facility," Vetter said.

The Manor at Elfindale is part of the Creekside at Elfindale Retirement Community, which is owned by Howard Stancer and Teresa Hall and managed by Vetter Health Services. Vetter Health Services has a lease-purchase option on the Creekside operation and owns the Manor, Vetter said. Hall said Vetter Heath Services could exercise its option to purchase the entire Creekside development in 2007.

The Creekside at Elfindale community consists of privately owned condominiums in two gated communities, independent duplex-style apartments, apartments that include meals, housekeeping and transportation services, and the Manor. All of the community's residents can participate in scheduled activity programs.

Mitch Elliott is the corporate architect for Vetter Health Services and works with Vetter to design the company's Alzheimer's units in its skilled nursing facilities. He said Vetter Health Services' unique design of its Alzheimer's units, which the company calls memory support households, provides a more specialized form of care for residents with Alzheimer's.

"Almost two-thirds of nursing home residents in the nation have some level of dementia or Alzheimer's disease leading to confusion or short-term memory loss. This has a huge impact on our long-term care facilities. If we can create some special environments and programs to meet the needs of these residents, it's really a win-win situation for those residents, their families and the other residents," Elliott said.

The unit will house 30 beds 26 private rooms and two companion rooms and will provide care for residents with both early-stage and middle-stage dementia. Residents with early- and middle-stage Alzheimer's will be separated in two wings of 15 beds each. Each wing, called a "household," will have its own courtyard and a kitchen where residents will be able to participate in staff-assisted baking activities. The households will provide smaller, activity-oriented groups that are safer and more therapeutic for the resident and more manageable for the staff, according to Vetter Health Services' application. A memory support coordinator, who will report directly to the Manor's administrator, and resident assistants, consisting of trained nursing assistants or certified medication technicians, will staff the unit.

Hall said the Alzheimer's unit will fill an existing need in the community and will allow married residents of the Manor to stay together when one spouse has Alzheimer's. She said the Manor will work with those couples individually to allow them to spend as much time together as possible.

"We want to make sure residents can stay with us as they develop more specialized needs," Hall said.

She said the Creekside community is also working on plans for an assisted living facility, and a luxury apartment complex focused on preventive care to attract the baby boomer generation as it ages.