A local facility is planning some new accommodations for a growing segment of the senior population.
IMAGE COURTESY OF GOOGLE
The open field behind senior-living center The Chelsea at Bald Eagle off Cahill Cross Road is due to become the home of a 20-unit addition to accommodate the growing number of seniors with Alzheimer's disease.
The Chelsea at Bald Eagle, an independent- and assisted-living center off Cahill Cross Road in West Milford[1] , is planning a 20-bedroom addition to its 128-unit facility for 2014. Expected to go before the municipal Planning Board next month, the proposal would double the size of its quarters for residents with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, according to Executive Director Kevin Seidel.
"Demand is increasing," he said. "Our population is living longer, and a consequence of that is that we are seeing a greater prevalence of some form of dementia."
The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that half of all Americans 85 years of age or older have Alzheimer's disease, which is commonly associated with progressive difficulty remembering new information due to a disruption in brain cell function, compared with only 5 percent of those aged 65 to 74.
Moreover, according to the national Alzheimer's Association, approximately 5 million seniors, or one in eight Americans 65 or older, are now living with the disease, up from 4.5 million in 2000. All signs point to that number increasing in step with the senior population – up to 7.1 million American seniors with Alzheimer's by 2025 – according to the association.
For those reasons, Seidel said the Chelsea needs to not only expand but transition to focus more on care for those with cognitive impairments. The trend, which the National Center for Health Statistics reports has roughly 42 percent of people in assisted-living facilities living with Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia, is already having its impact at the center.
"There have been times when we had to turn people away [and] send them to our facility in Montville[2] ," Seidel said. "That is not something we like or want to do."
The facility is part of a well-distributed network of similar establishments designed to allow locals to stay in the region they know and love or allow newcomers to live close to their families, he said.
"In this community, particularly, we do have a lot of local people that have been West Milford[3] people for umpteen years but we also have a large group that their families are local," Seidel said.
Currently, the center has 66 assisted-living units, 10 of which are in its Country Cottage for residents with Alzheimer's and other memory impairments. The Cottage offers a more secure, confined, and structured environment for residents, both providing a welcoming environment for those with apprehension about losing cognitive abilities and a synergistic space for specialized care, Seidel said. It has its own dining room, specially trained staff, and activities, while allowing residents to be more easily monitored to prevent wandering – a common side effect of Alzheimer's.
References
- ^ West Milford (www.northjersey.com)
- ^ Montville (www.northjersey.com)
- ^ West Milford (www.northjersey.com)
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