Lic. Date: 3/2/2018

1 – Citations (Type A)

6 – Citations (Type B)

Serving with Love at Joy Senior Center

Joy Senior Center is dedicated to providing compassionate care for seniors. We believe in keeping our services straightforward and transparent to ensure our residents and their families have peace of mind.

Services

Assisted Living

We like to keep it simple and cover as much as possible under the Base Price. This Base Price includes:

• Fully Furnished Rooms – either private or shared by 2 elders of the same gender.
• Three hot meals prepared per a published menu with fresh ingredients, as well as snacks.
• Supervised diet (dietary alterations prescribed by the doctor).
• Medication management – this includes logging their intake and calling pharmacies for refills. This does not include medication pick-ups.
• Assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADL) like showers, dressing up, etc.
• Personal call button – every resident has a personal call button to get help.
• Caregivers’ assistance at all hours.
• Cable TV in every room.
• Laundry Service.

Personalized Communication

• Frequent Community updates via email.
• Regular updates on your resident’s well-being.
• Any changes in behavior/condition.
• FaceTime with families is available upon request.
• Resident Council Meetings: We meet with residents and families to gather feedback or suggestions.

Memory Care

It is heartbreaking to see our elders deal with dementia and Alzheimer’s. At Joy Senior Center, we empathize with families who have a loved one with these conditions. The owners have had close family members suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and decline over 10+ years. We know first hand how it feels to see your loved ones go through this disease, and the impact it can have on the entire family.

Caring for elders with dementia requires special training because caregivers need to understand the different kinds of behaviors and how to respond. Joy Senior Center works with some of the most experienced trainers in the area and continually retrains staff with the latest research findings and practices in the industry. We are members of the Alzheimer’s Association, which is a national program.

Some residents decline slowly over years, and some take sudden dips declining very rapidly. We will work with you and your loved one’s health care team to devise a simple care plan. This plan will ensure your elder is safe and cared for. Once we agree upon a care plan with you, it is communicated to the team and implemented right away. Our highly trained and experienced staff are fully aware of signs to look for and report any unusual behavior. You’ll also be informed of any changes in your elder’s behavior if and when they occur. Even if there are no changes, we require reassessment by their doctor at least once annually. That provides validation that the care plan in place is optimal for your loved one.

At Joy Senior Center, we strive to minimize unnecessary medication. We often communicate prescribed medications and discuss observed behaviors and symptoms with your loved one’s medical doctor to ensure they are getting the correct medication for their needs.

We want residents at Joy Senior Center to be as independent as possible and to live life to the fullest. Joy Senior Center includes residents with and without dementia all living together; we do not isolate our dementia residents into a separate “memory care” section.

Hospice Care

There is a common myth that “hospice” means end-of-life care. We have had residents do very well and live for several months on hospice care. Sometimes the family, resident and their doctor may choose to admit the resident to hospice care. This means that the resident will not receive care from the physician and will not go to the hospital (in most cases). The resident will now be served at home (Joy Senior Center) by the medical care team of the hospice company. Care teams of the hospice companies typically include a doctor, a visiting nurse, an aide who helps with services, a chaplain, and a social worker. The nurse is the point of contact for the family, as well as our team.

To make the switch to hospice, a consent form needs to be signed with the resident’s primary doctor. If the switch to hospice care is made in good time, it can provide a better quality life to your loved one. There are also times when residents feel better while on hospice care and the hospice team may suggest reverting the resident back to their primary care physician.

Our team has worked with several hospice companies including the largest national companies and some excellent local Hospice teams. Once a resident is in hospice care, Joy Senior Center will meet with the hospice company’s nurse and the family to devise the perfect care plan for your loved one. This will lead your loved one to live their life to the fullest! Sometimes the condition of your loved one may change swiftly, and when this happens we communicate with the hospice team as well as their family, immediately. Usually we need extra support and time from the family, especially when the resident approaches the end-stage of their life.

Hospice care involves extra care for the resident. This results in significant documentation, communication and involves visiting the resident in bed by multiple individuals. We strongly recommend residents to be in a private room if they are going on a hospice plan.

ALW Program

The Assisted Living Waiver is a California state program in which the state subsidizes rents for your elders once they are approved. Residents pay a significant portion of the Social Security check to the provider facility.

Joy Senior Center is an approved provider for this program and can serve elders that have been approved by the state. Although we typically would serve families from Brentwood, Oakley or Antioch, we can admit residents from anywhere in CA. We prefer to serve families from Contra Costa County in the East Bay, for the convenience of the residents, families, and our staff.

Optional Services

We have a very simple rent structure and try our best to provide as much as we can in our base price. However, certain services demand much more time and effort and may warrant additional charges. These services include:

Incontinence

The most common optional service. We consider a resident to be “incontinent” if we have to change or clean them – even occasionally. If your loved one is incontinent, we will need you to bring us the supplies – this is typically the depends (diapers) and wipes. At Joy Senior Center, we typically change residents 3-5 times in a 24-hour period, depending on their needs.

Bedridden

We consider a resident to be “bedridden” if they are unable to get up from bed, even with our help. Sometimes a resident may become bedridden temporarily after a fall or illness. If the condition will last a couple of weeks until they can get out of bed, we would not consider them bedridden.

Our goal is to help residents live their lives to the fullest with as much independence and functionality as possible. We will work hard with the medical team to help your elder regain maximum functionality. If your loved one becomes bedridden we serve meals and snacks at their bedside. They will also receive a sponge bath instead of a shower.

Total Care

If your loved one is bedridden, unable to eat by themselves, and/or can only maneuver in bed by holding hand rails or our support, we say that they need “Total Care”.

Respite Care

“Respite care” consists of a temporary stay at Joy Senior Center. A typical respite care admission would be a resident who has been living with their loved ones but needs a place to receive care for a few weeks because their loved ones need to travel or are not available. Respite care is offered on a weekly basis.

The respite care route does not match our mission because it is very temporary in nature. At Joy Senior Center, we live like a family where everyone knows everyone and lives here. In a short time frame, it is very difficult to provide the kind of care and love that we usually do. Usually, we refrain from respite care, but can make exceptions when we feel the resident will fit into our community very easily.