Community Highlight: Independence Village

Podcast Transcription

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Maddy: Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the PFCU Money Talk podcast, I’m your host, Maddy. I had the opportunity to visit Independence Village, a senior living facility in Grand Ledge. They provide many living options including independent living, enhanced living, assisted living and memory care. I sat down with Holly who is the Executive Director and Administrator and it was apparent throughout our conversation how much she loves what she does every day and truly cares about the work she’s doing. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Holly, here she is!

Holly: So, I’m Holly Ridenour and I’m Executive Director and Administrator for Independence Village and StoryPoint of Grand Ledge.

Maddy: And how long have you been in your role?

Holly: Oh boy, 3 ½ years now.

Maddy: Okay, we’re you always in this type of role, what were you doing before?

Holly: You know, before, I took a break. For a while, I was working in senior living and I took a break when my kids were born and had a different adventure.

Maddy: Nice.

Holly: And then my heart was just drawn back to seniors because I feel like that’s where I belong.

Maddy: That’s awesome.

Holly: And I live right in town.

Maddy: Well yeah, that’s a bonus.

Holly: Definitely.

Maddy: And you just gave me a tour which was awesome. You guys provide a lot of different services, this place is huge. Could you speak to that a little bit, what you guys provide?

Holly: I can, yeah. So, we’re a full continuum of care, so that means we have independent living, what we call enhanced living so it’s just a different step of independent living. So, residents receive more services like all of their meals are included in enhanced living, they get daily housekeeping so it’s just a little bit more oversight. And then we have homecare agency underneath our company’s umbrella, Laura’s Homecare and so, residents who live here, whether it’s independent living or in enhanced, they can sign up for services through Laura’s Homecare and receive homecare services, like assistance getting up in the morning or maybe somebody is just nervous when they’re taking a shower and they just need somebody to stand by and help them feel safe. And we also have assisted living and memory care. So, when I mentioned StoryPoint, our memory care and assisted living is in our area called StoryPoint.

Maddy: Okay. So, when people are looking for somewhere like this when they’re ready to transition or their families are looking for somewhere like this, what kinds of things, I mean you mentioned those extra services, what else should people be looking for?

Holly: Well, I think safety is like, the biggest reason, is like usually the catalyst that gets, you know, them to pick up the phone to say that their ready to make a move. So I think just making sure that there is somebody there 24 hours a day. There’s a lot of apartment complexes or senior places but is there somebody there 24 hours a day? In our apartments we have pull cords and residents can wear a pendant around their neck.

Maddy: Oh okay.

Holly: Yup. So, there’s somebody here from Laura’s homecare 24 hours a day and there are some other staff members here 24 hours a day. So, if there was an emergency, it doesn’t happen at the convenient times, you know.

Maddy: Oh, well of course not.

Holly: So, there’s, I think that that’s really important.

Maddy: Yeah. I never would’ve thought about that, having someone here 24 hours

Holly: Yeah.

Maddy: Yeah, and maybe other people don’t think about that either.

Holly: Yeah.

Maddy: What about other amenities, you know, we were talking about bingo.

Holly: The importance of bingo.

Maddy: And the importance of bingo. We saw a couple dogs out there.

Holly: Sure, yup.

Maddy: Pets are allowed so things like that. What all should people be looking for?

Holly: Well, you want people, you know, if you’re moving your mom or your dad or your grandparents, I mean, people still want to have as much, you know, say in their lifestyle and they want to bring as much of their current lifestyle with them as they can. So, if somebody has a cat or a dog, as long as it’s less than 35 pounds, we don’t mind but we also have life enrichment department. So, life enrichment does things anywhere from going to Potters Park Zoo, we just went to the Van Gogh exhibit in Grand Rapids.

Maddy: Oh cool!

Holly: That was a blast.

Maddy: Yeah, that’s awesome.

Holly: Yeah, that was really nice and then we went to the Olive Garden for lunch afterwards. But we have lots of family events. We, you had mentioned bingo, so of course, you know, there’s bingo but I used to be a sign language interpreter so I teach a sign language class. We’ve got a creative writing group so, you know, we try to touch on all different areas in peoples’ lives until actual, you know, whether, we do Wii bowling, Friday’s actually the Wii bowling day, it’s a big day.

Maddy: I bet.

Holly: Yeah, we’ve done Wii bowling tournaments. The staff has competed against the residents, I mean, so it’s just, we try to be creative and just have a lot of fun.

Maddy: Yeah.

Holly: Yeah, when it was springtime, we hatched some duck eggs. So, we had ducks here.

Maddy: Oh my gosh. Call me next time!

Holly: Okay!

Maddy: I want to see that.

Holly: Until they were a few weeks old and that was really fun but yeah, we just try to have a great time and just enrich peoples’ lives and yeah.

Maddy: Yeah. I worked at a hotel several years ago and there were baby ducks that, I think they had to get to the pond in the courtyard and so, they had to cross through the hallway and it was like this big thing, like people were surrounding. It was so cute.

Holly: Yeah.

Maddy: It was so cute.

Holly: Yup.

Maddy: That’s fun.

Holly: Yup. There was an incubator right outside, well, just off of the main dining room and so, residents every day would just keep watching and waiting.

Maddy: Yeah.

Holly: And watching and waiting. Yeah, it was fun.

Maddy: I did see when I was walking in, you guys have several awards. I can’t remember exactly what they were but you have those posted. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Holly: Sure. So, we don’t do any advertising, whether it’s in the newspaper or, you know, on TV or radio. Our main way of reaching our audience is online. And so, one of the ways is through caring.com and also, senior advisors. And so, we’ve been a 4-star rating with senior advisors since, I think, like 2018 or 2017 which is done by reviews from families or from people who have visited our community or people that we work with. So, it’s just honest feedback about who we are and what it’s like to be here so we take our real experiences and we use that to our advantage.

Maddy: That’s good. I feel like you can trust those reviews.

Holly: I think so. Yeah.

Maddy: Like, I always look at reviews from people that have used services, I think that’s awesome.

Holly: Yeah, yup. And so anytime somebody is here or there’s an event or somebody moves in, we always just encourage them to put their honest experience of how it was for them.

Maddy: Yeah. We were talking a little bit about scams and fraud, especially targeted at seniors and elders and you had mentioned someone from Medicare coming in to speak?

Holly: Yeah, that was the most recent thing that I could think of, is that there was a gentleman here from the Medicare office, just doing a presentation for residents and he said, Medicare will never call you. So, just something to keep in mind. It’s the same thing with how many people want to ask for your social security number, give me your checking account or the IRS.

Maddy: Oh yeah.

Holly: I mean, because I think, you know, residents take is serious when it comes to like different areas of authority and they want to do the right thing.

Maddy: Well, right.

Holly: And when you get a phone call like that, it’s easy to say, oh sure here’s my information.

Maddy: Well especially, like, yeah, a lot of times they’re threatening too.

Holly: Oh yeah.

Maddy: Like, something bad is going to happen if you don’t do this and…

Holly: Yup, yup.

Maddy: Yeah. It’s scary for sure. Any other tips? Anything else you’ve seen just off the top of your head?

Holly: Not off the top of my head. The one that just really stands out to me is just the Medicare piece.

Maddy: Yeah.

Holly: Yeah, because I had a resident talk to me about it this week and he said they were asking him all kinds of questions about his insurance and he said it just started feeling weird

Maddy: Yeah.

Holly: It just got uncomfortable. And so, he kind of, I’m not sure what phrase he used, but he called the person out on the phone and they ended up hanging up on him. Right after that, the following week, the gentleman from the Medicare office came in and said, we will never call you.

Maddy: Right. Good thing he noticed something wasn’t right.

Holly: I know, I know it.

Maddy: Is there anything else you want to talk about?

Holly: I think one of the, you know, talking about safety being one of the catalysts that kind of pushes people toward making a move like this but another thing is memory loss. It’s a scary topic, a lot of families don’t want to face it and a lot of times it’s faced when there is a major event that happens. Whether mom was driving and she got lost or she left the water boiling on the stove for 6 hours.

Maddy: Yeah.

Holly: You know, just something that’s almost tragic and I think that it’s just important, to once you start noticing it, to acknowledge it and look into it and go see your doctor and not be afraid to just tackle it right away because waiting so long takes away so many opportunities for families and for their loved ones and it just puts them into this cycle of guilt and you know, not knowing what to do, especially when they’re in the middle of an emergency. And other communities, similar to us, I mean, for those type of emergency move-ins, there isn’t always availability. So, it can really put the resident in a bad situation, especially if they have family out of town and nobody close by.

Maddy: Right.

Holly: So, I just, that’s something near and dear to me is thinking about memory loss and I Just want people to tackle it right on, right away instead of ignoring it. I mean it’s normal to think like, where’d I put my keys? You know, and stuff like that, so sometimes people don’t want to admit it or acknowledge it but just because you forget certain things, you know, it doesn’t mean that you have necessarily a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s but if it’s something, if you’re starting to forget your kids’ birthdays or those big life events that were so meaningful or if you notice that, my mom always did this, she’s not doing this anymore or you know, there’s sticky notes all over the house, I’m wondering why. There’s a sticky note inside the cupboard that says, glasses go here, you know.

Maddy: Yeah.

Holly: There’s things to, to notice and the sooner that it can be, you know, managed, the better somebody’s quality of life.

Maddy: Yeah, I think that’s great advice especially thinking, don’t brush off, you know little things happen…

Holly: Oh sure!

Maddy: but don’t brush it off if it starts…

Holly: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yup, yup.

Maddy: I think that’s good advice.

Holly: Yup. But getting lost when you’re on your way to the grocery store that you always went to…

Maddy: Yeah.

Holly: That’s not normal behavior, right?

Maddy: Yeah. Right, right. Are there other locations? This is in Grand Ledge, are there other locations that you guys have?

Holly: There are! There are close to 80 communities under our portfolio now.

Maddy: Oh wow. I wasn’t expecting that.

Holly: I know! It just, it really, in the last two years we’ve really expanded.

Maddy: Yeah, is that all in Michigan or is that nationwide?

Holly: Well not necessarily nationwide. Midwest, it’s focused in the Midwest.

Maddy: Oh okay.

Holly: So, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee. I don’t know, is Tennessee still considered the Midwest?

Maddy: It’s bordering maybe?

Holly: Close-ish.

Maddy: Yeah, it’s in that area.

Holly: Yeah. Yeah and so, a lot of times you’ll hear StoryPoint or Independence Village, one of the two.

Maddy: Okay. Is there another location close to here? I think I, one came up, I think it was East Lansing.

Holly: So, there is an Independence Village in East Lansing that is not connected with us.

Maddy: Oh okay.

Holly: I know, confusing.

Maddy: That’s funny that the one I pointed out is the one that’s not connected, okay.

Holly: Yup, yup but we’re not connected at all.

Maddy: Okay, gotcha.

Holly: No.

Maddy: Is there anything else you want people to know about Independence Village, contact information, information that is important to next steps?

Holly: Yeah, if you go online, find more information about us online or if somebody wants to come in for a tour. I think it’s hard to know what community feels right until you step in the door, you know. It definitely gives you just a warm family feel when you’re here. I think my son, he’s 12 and so sometimes he’s got some big opinions and he came in in the springtime to see the ducks and he walked in and he looked at he and he’s like, wow, it just feels like a big grandma’s house, you know?

Maddy: That’s awesome!

Holly: That’s to me, that’s the feeling I get from being here, it just really feels like family. During the holidays, it’s just such a beautiful thing to experience.

Maddy: Yeah. Even just walking around today, I mean, you know the names of everyone…

Holly: Well of course!

Maddy: Everyone’s so friendly, people are popping into your office to say hi.

Holly: Yeah, always.

Maddy: Yeah, yeah, that’s great.

Holly: Yeah. Yup, yup. And then, the main number here is 517-627-7585. You can call and schedule a tour, make an appointment and come on in.

Maddy: Great!

Holly: If we have, you know, special events, you can see us on Facebook. You can come in and see us that way as well.

Maddy: Awesome!

Holly: Yeah.

Maddy: Cool. Alright, well that’s all I have for you. I appreciate it!

Holly: Yeah, no problem.

Maddy: Thanks!

Holly: No problem!

Maddy: If you’re interested in getting more information about Independence Village, you can give them a call at 517-627-7585 or visit their website. They also have a Facebook you can check out for special events and other news. Thanks for listening!

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