BLAINE, Minn. – (Feb. 18, 2016) – Between the growth in senior apartment buildings, independent living, and assisted living, it’s clear that the desire for more senior living options is there. This week, the newest senior living community held their ribbon cutting in Blaine. “Senior care is popping up everywhere. Baby Boomers are hitting the age of 65 at a rate of 10,000 people a day,” said Edgemont Place administrator Julie Maruska. Edgemont Place is different from other assisted living centers because they focus on just one specialty. They focus only on memory care. And while that can include a medical diagnosis of dementia of Alzheimer’s, that is not a requirement.
“It doesn’t necessarily even need to be diagnosed. It’s not something you have to have an Alzheimer’s diagnosis for, dementia diagnosis. It’s something that people can see very early on, can see that mom is having problems with managing her finances or maybe forgetting names or doesn’t do things she used to do,” said Maruska. When that becomes neglecting self care, whether its skipping out on hygiene, missing meals, or forgetting to taken medications, that’s when many families have to start to discussion of future living arrangements. “What I tell my families is they are not giving up and they are not giving in, they’re getting help. So we just join their family care team in ways that maybe provide another level of services to that family so they can provide for their mom,” said Maruska.
Edgemont Place is waiting for the final check up from the Minnesota Department of Health, and once that takes place they will be ready to start serving their first residents. More information on Edgemont Place can be found here.
