Although a large portion of Americans desire to age in place, many ultimately turn to senior housing providers as they grow older, often at a point in their lives when they’re at their frailest from a health care perspective.
To help ease that transition—and, perhaps, bring it about in a more timely fashion—international home care franchise company Right at Home is teaming up with Dominion Senior Living on a new pilot program known as Dominion Home Living.
Founded in 1995, Right at Home offers in-home companionship and personal care and assistance to seniors and adults with disabilities who want to continue to live independently. Right at Home’s global office is based in Omaha, Nebraska. The company has more than 500 franchise locations in the United States and seven in other countries.
At any one time, Right at Home serves more than 25,000 clients across the globe.
The pilot program between Right at Home and the Knoxville, Tennessee-based senior living provider will be for certain older adults who live at the master-planned Patrick Square community in Clemson, South Carolina.
“We found there was a need … for people who are still living in their home and aren’t quite yet ready for assisted living, but yet need the socialization of what an assisted living or independent living community can provide,” Lindsey Daugherty, a principal and role model with Dominion, told Home Health Care News.
Under the pilot program, Right at Home’s caregivers will handle the in-home care component of the new program. On its end, Dominion will from its forthcoming 66-unit assisted living community offer meals, social activities, personal care, health checks, medication setup and reminders, transportation and pet care.
Seniors or their loved ones can purchase packages ranging from $900 to $2,700 per month that include daily check-ins or personal care sessions lasting two or four hours a day. Dominion will also offer a la carte packages, such as day, weekly, or monthly dining plans; short-term respite stays; daycare services; and life-enrichment programs.
Many older adults wait until they’re too sick or debilitated to live at home before considering a move into senior housing, according to Daugherty. With the help of a caregiver, some seniors might decide to make that move sooner, she said.
“What we see a lot in our industry is that we get our residents with a lot of comorbidities. They’re really sick, and they wait too long,” Daugherty said. “We really want someone to know that we are here with them, and that we understand what they’re going through. And we want to catch them at a younger age so that we are keeping them healthy.”
When the pilot program launches in the first quarter of 2019, it will reach a group of more than 20 seniors who live at the age-restricted Villas at Patrick Square. If all goes according to plan, however, the program will be expanded to the rest of the Patrick Square in the months that follow, and potentially also to all of Dominion’s communities sometime down the road.
The faith-based operator may also hire its own home care workers, depending on how the program goes, Daugherty noted.
“Could you imagine the difference in the culture and the way the community runs when [residents] made the choice to be there, and they felt good about that choice?” Daugherty said. “That’s a huge difference in the way we deliver care and how it’s received.”
Currently, Dominion has 13 senior living locations in operation or under construction across Tennessee, Kentucky and South Carolina.
Written by Tim Regan
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