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Brecon Village to erect memory support center
Facility to feature 30 apartment-like rooms, adult day care program
By Brian Cox, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 31, 2008
Evangelical Homes of Michigan is heralding its plans to open a $10 million memory support center next year in Saline as a "ground-breaking statewide model for memory loss care."
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The preliminary site plan for the 35,000-square-foot facility received approval from the Saline Planning Commission Jan. 23 and construction is expected to begin in the spring.
Construction costs are estimated to be around $8 million with another $2 million put toward programs and community outreach services.
The memory support center will join other EHM-run facilities, Brecon Village and Evangelical Home Saline, to provide an unprecedented "continuum of care," said Becky Pazkowski, vice president of development and community relations for Evangelical Homes of Michigan.
"Now people won't need to leave Saline as they age and their families won't need to leave to see them," she said.
In an effort to provide comprehensive services and programs to people with early-stage and advanced memory loss, the memory support center is designed to address every care level of dementia, which is a progressive disease that gradually destroys memory and the ability to learn, reason, make judgments, communicate and carry out daily activities.
The center will feature 30 apartment-like rooms in its three assisted-living wings, including four rental cottages; an adult day care program; a home-based program; and a resource center open to the public.
The three assisted-living wings, known as "households," will share a common area or "neighborhood" that will include a chapel, fitness center, salon, spa, two activity rooms, and a cafÈ where residents will be able to select their own meals.
The layout is designed to allow residents to participate in normal daily activities such as laundry and cooking, while providing 24-hour care in comforting, familiar surroundings.
"The way people with memory loss respond best is to smaller, calmer, more intimate environments," Pazkowski said.
Seventy different kinds of dementia have been identified, but Alzheimer's accounts for about 65 percent of all dementia-related illnesses, she said.
More than 4,000 people suffer from Alzheimer's disease in Washtenaw County alone, according to statistics from Evangelical Homes of Michigan. With the state's 85-years-and-older population expected to double in the next 20 years, the number of people with dementia is projected to climb dramatically.
"These people need services and their families need services," Pazkowski said.
In the early planning stages of the center, Evangelical Homes conducted extensive focus group interviews with families who had members that suffered dementia and learned that the families would have liked to have had help sooner.
"Over and over again, participants said 'We wish you had been with us earlier," said Evangelical Homes of Michigan President and CEO Denise Rabidoux. "That led to two unique aspects of the memory support center: the resource center and the adult day care program."
The adult day care program will provide daily recreation, social support, and activities for people with dementia whose families perhaps work during the day or are in need of occasional respite.
The resource center will be open to the public and provide education, information, and support to people with memory loss, their caregivers and families. In addition to publications and other materials that will be available for borrowing, the resource center will coordinate support groups, educational programs, and seminars.
The home-based program will work with caregivers to provide individualized services such as transportation, companionship and emergency respite care in an effort to extend in-home care for people with dementia.
The memory support center will be built on the eastside of the 30-acre Brecon Village campus.
"It only made sense for us to expand in the city of Saline, where we could offer a continuum of care," said Rabidoux.
"Our relationship with the city has been a win-win for both of us," she said. "EHM has been blessed with its relationship with the city and the community at large."
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