By: John Tucker, Director, Senior Services
July 25th is National Parents’ Day, which means it is the perfect time to consider the care your elderly parents may be receiving as they age. As people age, their needs change, and they may need help with mobility, personal care, or keeping up with medical appointments and medication routines. Thankfully, senior living facilities such as the Carriage House and Norwalk Memorial Home provide a wide array of options to best fit the needs of you or your loved ones.
Senior living allows older adults to make the most of their lives by assisting them with personal care or medical needs, eliminating the burden of home care/yard work, and prevents isolation by giving them opportunities to meet and socialize with other residents who may have similar interests.
At Fisher-Titus, we have multiple options so you can find the care that’s right for you or your loved one.
Norwalk Memorial Home
Norwalk Memorial Home is a great long-term care option for seniors needing continual assistance. Norwalk Memorial Home provides 24/7 care that is coordinated with the physician of your choice, access to Fisher-Titus Medical Center for medical care, meals, assistance, social services, therapy, pain management, and frequent social outings.
Features of the Norwalk Memorial Home include:
- 24-hour nursing care coordinated with the physician of your choice
- Rapid access to Fisher-Titus Medical Center, should you require medical care
- Three delicious meals per day plus snacks planned by our licensed dietitians
- Assistance with dressing, bathing, grooming, transferring, and transporting
- Social services
- Physical therapy, respiratory therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy
- Wound care
- Infusion therapy
- Pain management
- Frequent social outings
- Medicare and Medicaid certified, also accepting private insurance plans
- Additional services such as oxygen, medication, laundry, and phone services available for a nominal fee
Residents can also enjoy these amenities to ensure comfort, convenience, and a pleasant experience during their stay:
- Availability of additional medical support for your medical needs
- Recreational, social, physical, and spiritual activities program
- Rooms are furnished with a bed and nightstand, leaving room for personal belongings such as your favorite recliner, photos, wall hangings, television, etc.
- Beauty/barber shop
- Gift shop
- Enclosed courtyard with gazebo
- Garden room
- Shady Lane Café
- Pharmacy
- Bird aviary and aquarium
Carriage House
The Carriage House provides assisted living for more independent seniors, as well as short-term and trial living options. Living at the Carriage House allows seniors to remain independent, while maintaining the peace of mind that family and friends need that their loved ones have access to assistance should they need it and living their best lives. Rapid access to Fisher-Titus Medical Center, should you require medical care, gives assurance to seniors and their families both.
To ensure residents are comfortable and feel at-home, each unit includes:
- Wall-to-wall carpeting and window blinds.
- Eat-in kitchenette with stove, refrigerator, and microwave.
- Individual climate control for heat and air conditioning.
- Ability to personalize space by selecting from approved paint color and carpeting options.
- Emergency call system in every apartment living room and bathroom plus individual Lifeline pendants for each resident’s ongoing safety.
- Sit-down shower feature in bathroom.
- Smoke alarm and automatic sprinkler system.
- Individualized mailboxes for incoming mail and a post box for outgoing mail.
Trial periods are available for anyone considering a longer stay at the Carriage House so that residents and their loved ones can see what it has to offer. The units can be furnished or unfurnished, and you can stay on the trial period for up to 3 months. The short-term options are ideal for patients recovering from medical procedures or if a caregiver is unable to care for their loved one for a short period of time and feature fully furnished units to ensure the comfort of your family member during their stay of up to 1-4 weeks.
The Carriage House offers these services to their residents:
- Personal care assistants on staff 24-hours-per-day to provide individualized care.
- Continuum of Care: Preferred access to Norwalk Memorial Home and the Transitional Care Unit, should you require nursing services.
- Three delicious meals served restaurant-style each day in our comfortable and relaxing dining room.
- Weekly housekeeping and bed and bath linen laundry service.
- Full array of planned activities including recreational, social, physical, and spiritual activities such as: daily exercise program and current events, dartball team, religious services, weekly happy hour with entertainment and brain games.
- Minibus transportation to banks, shopping, dining out, afternoon drives, outings, and events.
- Free scheduled transportation to and from physician appointments and services on Fisher-Titus Medical Center campus.
- Worry-free maintenance and repairs of apartments and grounds.
- Monthly wellness clinic.
- Additional services such as medication reminders, laundry, delivered meals, and a beauty/barber shop are also available for a nominal fee.
For more information on Norwalk Memorial Home and the Carriage House and what they have to offer, go to fishertitus.org/senior-services.
Memory loss that disrupts daily life. This is the most commonly known sign of Alzheimer’s, especially in its early stages. Typically this appears as forgetting recently-learned information, forgetting important dates or events, asking the same questions repeatedly, and increasing reliance on memory aids (notes, electronic reminders, etc.) or family for things individuals previously handled on their own. It’s common for older adults to sometimes forget names or appointments but remember them later. When individuals are not able to eventually recall things or forget things that are out of character for them to forget, that’s when it starts to become a concern.