One senior living company best known for providing memory care to seniors is branching out and piloting a new concept. It focuses on people who do not have memory impairments and may be in need of help, but not as much help as skilled nursing.
Irvine, California-based Silverado opened its first “Vivra” neighborhood of about 25 beds to its first resident last week, CEO and President Loren Shook (pictured above) told Senior Housing News.
The neighborhood is a separate wing within a 90-bed memory care community in Houston, which was chosen because Silverado’s other new program, focused on Parkinson’s disease, also began a pilot in the city.
“Vivra in French means he or she ‘will live’,” Shook said. “The neighborhood is for adults without memory impairments who could have health concerns like diabetes, multiple sclerosis (MS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease, but don’t necessarily need skilled nursing care. In many cases, these people would either go from the hospital to the home or would be struggling to thrive in a skilled facility.”
Other people who could benefit from Vivra include:
– Adults undergoing cancer treatment who need regular medical expertise
– Older adults looking for clinical expertise, but not as much as skilled nursing
– People waiting for a transplant
The Vivra neighborhood inside Vintage Preserve Memory Care Community is not a skilled nursing facility—it is en environment that encourages socialization and purpose, added Shook.
The Program
Vivra’s personalized residential program, which costs $240 per day, focuses on the wellbeing of individuals and includes oversight from a full-time registered nurse, a social worker who leads support groups, as well as licensed practical nurses who work 24/7 to provide medications and treatments to residents.
The program allows residents to choose how they would like to be engaged around the community through a social calendar. They can volunteer around Vintage Preserve Memory Care Community and have the option to interact with memory care residents in that wing.
Residents also have the choice be a part of Nexus, Silverado’s brain health program.
“The goal of the program is to give people a sense of purpose and to not dwell on their condition,” Shook explained.
The entire community of Vintage Preserve, including memory care residents and Vivra residents, have access to a town square area with dining options, a beauty salon, ice cream parlor, outdoor areas with walking paths and resident pets. This town center encourages socialization among all residents.
The program comes at a time when there are very few other options for populations that do not fit into the categories of needing hospital care or skilled nursing care. Vivra fills the gap for this population of people in a home-like environment, added Shook.
Further Expansion
Depending on how the first Vivra neighborhood does, as well as the amount of space available, Silverado has the goal of opening one in each market the company is in, which could easily be 30 neighborhoods, Shook said.
There is not a set length of time the Vivra neighborhood will pilot until others could be opened, but there is certainly the amount of expansion within Silverado that may point this platform growing in the near future.
Recently, the company announced it would be expanding to the East Coast for the first time and expects to have its first 66-bed memory care community licensed in Arlington, Virginia, by February of next year, with further expansion in the Washington D.C.-area within the next five to six years, explained Shook.
Written by Alana Stramowski
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