Tallahassee will soon be home to an assisted living facility designed specifically for people with Alzheimer’s and memory loss. The disease now affects more than 5 million people nationwide.
These days, people are living longer, and the price for longevity, increasingly, is dementia. The mission behind the Clarity Pointe living facility is to improve quality of life for people with memory loss, and their families. Designers hope the neighborhood-like layout will make residents feel more at home. Special lighting fixtures will limit shadows and help residents navigate the area, and motion sensors will alert staff of who’s out and about. Spokesperson Karen Crolius says the staff will work closely with residents and their families to learn their history.
“So we get to understand who they were as people, what were their milestones, what did they do for a living, what did they like to do. And then we gear programming around the ability to be able to support their individual needs and give them a sense of purpose every day,” she said.
Entering an assisted living facility can be a challenging decision, Crolius says. But it can also relieve family caregivers.
“We become the extended family of the families who are still on the outside. Then coming in and visiting and engaging with their family members in a lot of times in a whole new way, because it’s not so stressful anymore,” she said.
Clarity Pointe hopes to break ground on the Tallahassee facility in 2017.
