Alzheimer’s, Dementia Care & Assisted Living in Worcester, MA
LIFE at the Oasis at Dodge Park community provides the environment of Love for individual passions, opportunities for Innovation such as setting a stage to perform again, having a new Family to hear melodies of the past and feel the warmth and tenderness of real Engagement as you are able to experience the positive feedback from others.
Our Innovative Program at the Oasis at Dodge Park
Oasis at Dodge Park fights cognitive decline by encouraging residents to engage in both mental and physical exercise. We call our program Cognitive Engagement Therapy Techniques. The program at Oasis at Dodge Park is exceptional because we have a full-time activity professional in every wing every day.
Our smaller environment and high staffing ratio allow us to provide specialized individual activities for the residents. Research shows that keeping our minds active not only helps maintain our mental functions, but may actually improve abilities even in individuals with dementia.
We know that individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of memory impairment vary in their level of ability. A deficit in one of our senses is often compensated by another sense. Engaging and stimulating as many of the five senses as often possible increases the likelihood of a “connection” between the resident and the activity.
The Small Household Model
Culture Change and the LIFE program at Oasis at Dodge Park and Small house philosophies encourage flexibility and responsiveness to resident’s needs and desires and the plan offers several common areas that will allow variety and choice. Each household has its own dining area, living room (day room) , dedicated activity spaces that will support appropriate activities to people with different cognitive abilities. Each household also has a residential family style kitchen that serves as a front to a commercial style serving kitchen behind it, where residents can freely access juices, fruits and light snack.
Specialized Care
Unmatched care for our residents
- Nurse on site 24 hours a day
- Diabetic and Oxygen Management
- Hospice Care to support aging in place
- Special Diets of all kinds with in-house dietician consult
- Medical Director and Rounding Physicians (weekly visits)
- Staffing Ratio which is the best in the industry
- Specialized Activity Program 1:15 Staffing Ratio
- Electronic Medical Records & Quickmar Online Pharmacy
- Long Term Care Insurance accepted by all carriers
- Fully secure environment and unique monitoring through elopement system in place
- Admissions 24 hours a day
Wandering Prevention Program
Safe and secure setting for residents
- Buildings are fully enclosed
- All outside doors and windows are secured
- Internal Positioning System throughout the properties via CCTV allows staff to pinpoint the location of residents
- Elopement system throughout the facility
You can have peace of mind that your loved one is safe and secure at Oasis at Dodge Park. Oasis at Dodge Park Memory Care is improving the resident experience through technology. Each resident is closely monitored within our community. All residents upon move in are also gifted with a fall detection unit. This is helpful in assisting our caregivers and nurses if a resident needs assistance. We utilized a CareTracker system around all community.
Fall Prevention Program
Ensuring the safety of your loved one.
- Hydration program prevents dehydration that can lead to dizziness and falls
- Pull cords in resident bathrooms alert staff know when someone may need help
- Fall prevention team continually works to monitor and decrease falls
- Physical therapy assistance provided as needed to evaluate equipment and other ways to prevent falls
- Walk-in Showers
- Strategically placed handrails in bathrooms and corners
- Handrails in corridors
Activities Program – Cognitive Engagement Therapy Techniques
- Activity Coordinators staffed seven days a week from 7am to 9:30pm
- We utilize the activities training manual of the National Alzheimer’s Association
- “Life Skills Approach”- activities are designed to give residents the opportunity to do tasks that are familiar and make them feel valuable – setting the dinner table, folding laundry, painting wood, caring for a “baby” and more
- A thorough assessment is taken when residents enter the home related to their likes, dislikes, former occupation, leisure interests, etc.
Nutrition
A homelike residential setting
- Delicious menus developed by a registered dietician
- Nutritious snacks and beverages are available at all times
- Menus emphasizes foods rich in Omega-3 and antioxidants
- Special diets as prescribed by a physician
- Nutritional supplements when prescribed by a physician
Health and Wellness Program
Safe and secure setting for residents
- Residents maintain their own physicians or can use the community physician
- Nurse on-site every day
- Medication administered and supervised by a nurse
- Blood pressure and general health monitoring
- Regular weight checks
- Physician on site weekly and available 24/7 on cell phone
- Dietitian visits regularly and is available to meet any day at any time
- Social worker / case manager available on site
Communication
Ensuring the safety of your loved one.
- Monthly newsletter regarding activities, events and news items
- Advanced technology allows residents to video conference with family and physicians
- Weekly emails / phone call from staff keeps you in touch
- Staff carry phones so you can speak with them directly
- Supervisor onsite to communicate with families
- Direct access to facility administrators and DON 24/7 via their cell phone
Driving Principles
Four principle goals drive owners, Mr. Herlinger and Mr. Shalev, in the past 25+ years in the field to create LIFE at their facilities, especially in small setting environments:
- Help the individual maintain or improve function and engage in daily activities to the extent possible and as the disease progresses.
- Restore or compensate for functional decline due to an acute insult such as an injury or traumatic health episode such as a stroke, or fall which occurs over and above the dementia.
- Provide family caregivers with education and knowledge about the disease and specific skills to provide a supportive environment at home and reduce excess disability.
- Enrich staff ability and skills to properly support the emotion, social, and physical ability of our residents.
From our many years of experience, we found out that residents feeling they have a deeper relationships with the staff, and family members are reporting a higher satisfaction with the physical environment, privacy, their own autonomy, health care and meals.
Employees, too, report less stress. The turnover rate is significantly lower with us than in a traditional long term care. In the past 10 years our turn over was less than 2%.