The Familiar Feel Of Home Center Offers Specialized Care For Patients With Dementia

It is a cruel irony of life that the elderly, after working and raising families, may themselves need to be cared for when they are too ill to be self-sufficient.

In particular, seniors who suffer severe memory loss may require 24-hour care and security measures most households are not equipped to offer.

Cheryl Graves of Spokane recently found herself in the position of caring for such a person when her 82-year-old stepfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

During the onset of the illness, Graves didn’t notice anything was amiss. Her stepfather hid his increasingly poor memory and confusion well, she said.

But soon her stepfather - who had retired as an Air Force major and taught high school math for 20 years after that - was so impaired that he could not understand or comply with simple requests.

“Eventually, it just got to be too much. He needed help with everything, anything you can think of,” she said.

After caring for him for two months, she and her mother finally decided to place him in a nursing home.

“We were both crying,” she said.

Now, Graves is moving her stepfather again, to a place that promises services tailored to his needs.

Clare Bridge, which opened last week in northwest Spokane, is the first large assisted-care center in Eastern Washington specializing in caring for seniors suffering from dementia.

The center, at 5329 W. Rifle Club Court, has rented eight residences to date, according to administrators. It can serve up to 52 residents at an average cost of $3,350 a month.

Clare Bridge seems to be a good place for her stepfather, Graves said. The nursing home he was in is not equipped to deal with his propensity to wander.

Guests at an open house last Tuesday were ushered into the new building and given tours that emphasized the center’s special features.

Upon entering the complex, visitors find themselves in a large room with a 24-foot vaulted ceiling and tiled floor. Patio furniture sits in the center of the room, and the walls appear to be the exteriors of other buildings. The immediate impression is that the visitor or resident is outside again.

The room, called the Town Square, is the hub of the building and the focus of the center’s underlying concept: to create a community atmosphere that feels normal and familiar.

The square connects the building’s two wings, Clare House and Bridge House. Each house has three sections, dubbed neighborhoods.

For instance, the Ocean Blue Court neighborhood supports a nautical theme. Common rooms here, like the den and country kitchen, are decorated with framed pictures of coastlines, sailing ship models and wooden steering wheels.

The Silver Screen Court has a movie theme, and the pictures are of 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s movie stars.

The themes, said marketing manager Stephanie Williams, provide strong visual and conceptual cues for residents.

Residents will be encouraged to engage in activities tailored to their personalities, Williams said.

A resident who likes to garden will have opportunities to do that under supervision. Residents who work with their hands will be able to use tools in a workshop, again under supervision.

Although Clare Bridge is the only large boarding home in Eastern Washington to offer care specifically for people with dementia, there are many adult family homes, licensed for up to six people, which also specialize in that type of care, said Department of Social and Health Services manager Ben Blake.

Blake said he is not convinced that a center needs to specialize in order to provide quality service to people suffering from dementia.

“We have many different homes here that have a mix of residents that do quite well,” he said. “I can see their line of thinking, but I don’t entirely agree with it.

“It really depends, I think, on the services they offer, the clients there and, of course, the staff,” he said.

Map of area.