OHCA Spring/Summer 2019

www.ohca.com SPRING/SUMMER 2019 The Oregon Caregiver 11 Cherrywood Village resident Carol poses with caregiver Anthony during the community’s Fly Me to the Moon- themed prom. FEATURE moved their Valentine’s Day dinner to Feb. 13, so they could hold their first Senior Prom on February 14. The theme was ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ and Lindbo said that in addition to bringing in a DJ, they made a slide show of staff and residents from their original proms. All of the wellness and activity programs at Cherrywood Village are driven by their mission to “enhance lives and celebrate the excitement of living,” Lindbo said. “What that means is, we understand it’s not exciting to live in a senior housing community. In order to come and live in a community like this, you have lost a significant amount in your life. We realize it’s a lot of loss, and that’s why it’s our mission to enhance lives.” Lindbo refers to the activities program- ming at Cherrywood Village as their ‘vitality culture.’ “Our vitality culture, what we’ve broken down for what we call our generation’s standard for each community, is that we’re going to teach Cherrywood’s vitality philosophy, a program for mind, body and spirit. We’re going to offer opportunities for residents and employees, not one or the other. We are one. All of the employees are going to be residents someday, or they’re going to be seniors with disabili- ties and losses, and all of our seniors have been us,” he said. Lindbo said that because Cherrywood Village is running their facility at nearly full occupancy, they really look for new residents who are the right fit. “The folks that are moving in, typically, are very attracted to our vitality program,” he said. As a foundational example of the vitality at Cherrywood Village, Lindbo said, “Our health and wellness pro- gram isn’t just open to residents and employees. It’s a private-public gym. We have 200 public members, so the cool thing is, we get this cross-multi- generational exposure for all three parts. We’ve got community members from the Portland area that we live in that come, we have our residents and their grandkids and kids, and then we have the employees and their kids.” Some of the new programs at Cherry- wood Village are determined in a very unique way. “We do a resident leader- ship summit every year. We invite the board members on the resident council from all of our communities, and we f ly all these residents to a location and we meet with them,” Lindbo said. A few years ago, they f lew to the campus in San Diego. “That’s where we talk about the innovations. That is where we talk about where we can be better, not just in regard to vitality. We even brought in our architect and had the residents go over blueprints with us, show us what they would change in the units and what could be better with the set-ups. The information we get from our residents is absolutely phenome- nal,” he said. Wellness in these three communities is clearly more than just physical health. Creating senior communities that are so much more than housing takes a commitment and dedication that is inspiring.