A resident with dementia often needs an environment geared to allow them to function at their full potential.  A large facility can be overwhelming to this resident and abilities can decline by the inability they have to process their thoughts.  A goal to meet these residents’ needs was realized in 1996, when the facility opened the first "Special Needs Unit" in the area.  Undergoing a major expansion and renovation project, an existing neighborhood was taken and designed into a secure environment with 24 beds available. A dining social area with a nurse’s station and bathing facilities were added and eventually a beautiful fenced in outdoor area with a walk path and gazebo.  This became the environment that provides security and continuity to the resident with dementia. Though the residents are contained, they are also able to attend off unit functions if tolerated well. Unit staff remains the same, faces become familiar, and the resident is given a sense of security as opposed to placement on the main floors of the facility.

Willow Living Center is a  Memory Care Unit designed specifically with the resident with dementia in mind. This unit, down to the last detail, will help the resident progress with dignity and grace as their disease advances. Once no longer benefiting from the unit’s environment, this resident will be moved to a different area of the facility with equal quality care.

Residents enjoy elegance in every detail of the décor, including friendly dining and living areas, complete with fireplaces, numerous gathering and social areas and beautiful rooms to provide your loved one with a secure, homelike environment. The atmosphere is exceptional and enhanced by our caring, dedicated, specially trained, staff that understand dementia and provide the specialized environment and care needed to help each resident function at their highest possible potential. Willow Living Center is person centered and resident driven.

What Willow Living Center Offers

• Secure, safe environment
• Circular endless design and path to promote walking and defer restlessness.
• Pleasure and task, round the clock activities that are person centered and enjoyable.
• Constant evaluation and assessment for needed changes and approaches.
• Close family involvement in plan of care and daily life.
• Outdoor courtyard and garden that is safe and secure.
• Facility planned outings that accommodate the resident with dementia.
• Ability to attend off unit events when appropriate.
• Beautician, barber and manicurist available by appointment.
• Music and Memory Certified Facility, providing individualized music playlists, iPod and headphones
• Aromatherapy Program for alternative approaches providing essential oils as a holistic approach to typical dementia behaviors

Always striving to find non-invasive approaches to behavior that comes with dementia, we have found that Essential Oils are a wonderful passive way to combat anxiousness, sadness, anger and melancholy. We work with a reputed company that is interested enough in helping us come up with essential oil solutions, used with a diffuser, pendant and or roller-ball. Seeing the success of this approach has led us to expand our use of essential oils to other residents not residing on the memory care unit.

Memory Care Unit Objectives

1. To maintain and maximize functional levels of residents with dementia (alertness, accurate sensation, strength/mobility/cognitive skills)
2. To allow freedom and autonomy for residents.
3. To provide safe and dignified care for residents.
4. To use the least restrictive environment.
5. To maximize socialization for residents.
6. To maintain and /or attain highest ADL skills, to enhance physical health and to prevent depression and to heighten self-esteem.
7. To create an interdisciplinary team that will make continuity of care a reality.
8. To utilize all non-invasive behavior approaches to promote well-being, including
9. a Music and Memory Program and Aromatherapy Program