United Hebrew of New Rochelle this month opened Willow Gardens Memory Care, a 51-bed, two-story residence for seniors with Alzheimer”™s disease and other dementias.
United Hebrew officials said the facility on the organization”™s 7 ½ -acre comprehensive-care campus in the Sound Shore city is the first nonprofit assisted living center in Westchester County designed exclusively for people with memory impairment.
It opens as the region and the nation prepare for a growing wave of longer-living people affected by dementia, United Hebrew officials noted. In the Hudson Valley region, more than 40,000 people have Alzheimer”™s disease and the number is expected to climb to 50,000 by 2025, according to the Hudson Valley chapter of the Alzheimer”™s Association.
“With the need so great, there is an increased demand for quality care for this segment of our population,” said United Hebrew President and CEO Rita Mabli in a statement for the June 16 opening. “Willow Gardens provides that care that has been meticulously planned so that life for its residents will be fulfilling and enriching.”
The groundbreaking facility at 60 Willow Drive is an addition to a United Hebrew campus that now serves more than 800 people daily and includes an assisted-living facility, skilled nursing and rehabilitation center and two independent-living apartment buildings for seniors.
Willow Gardens was built in United Hebrew”™s former Saul and Ada Gutner Pavilion. Residents with moderate memory impairment will live one the renovated first floor, while the second floor will be home to residents affected by severe dementia. United Hebrew officials said research shows that Alzheimer”™s is less jarring and easier to cope with when people affected by it spend their days among others with similar conditions.
“You feel very much like you”™re at home here,” Mabli said. “It”™s comfortable, and the layout makes it easy to understand and navigate. There”™s no place that people can get lost.”
Willow Gardens will be run by Executive Director Sallie Carlin, a certified recreational therapist with more than 25 years of experience caring for residents with memory loss.
“The key is to keep the residents engaged with activities that are tailored to their lives and to respect their dignity while offering them choices,” Carlin said. “As part of that, we get to know their life stories so that we can offer them the activities they will enjoy.”
