Memory care isn’t a typical offering in age restricted, for sale 55-plus communities. One California-based physician is aiming to change that.
Dr. Raj Kalra is forging ahead with the new concept, dubbed Aroha Memory Care. Raj Kalra and Nisha Kalra, a dentist and board certified in lifestyle medicine, are preparing to open a new community in Santa Rosa, California. The 27-bed memory care home is located within a master-planned neighborhood with 3,500 for-sale homes serving 5,000 residents set to open by the end of this year.
A lot has changed in the last year since Kalra first announced the project in conjunction with his company MD Senior Wellness.
“Over the past year, we’ve identified new ways to better serve our clients, which has driven our evolution,” Raj Kalra told Memory Care Business. “What started as an MD-owned and operated memory care vision has now become a fully realized concept, and we are currently in active construction.”
Also new in the last 12 months, Aroha refined its programming and technology systems in place to support operations once the community is open. For context, Aroha is a Māori word that means love, compassion and empathy, Kalra noted.
“It aligns perfectly with our model of person-centered care and well-integrated support for older adults living with dementia,” Kalra said.
Going forward, Kalra sees MD Senior Wellness serving as the management and operating company, with Aroha being the company’s first standalone community. In pursuing high acuity memory care within an active adult community, Kalra said he wants to “redefine” the senior living continuum and bring wellness and social connection together mixed with aging in place. To him, that starts within active adult properties.
“We have opportunities for multigenerational engagement, social interaction, community integration, and volunteering, whether from family members or the broader community,” Kalra said. “This is essential for the social engagement of our residents, helping them maintain a better trajectory in their cognitive health and emotional well-being.”
High-touch care and a six-to-one resident to caretaker ratio aims to elevate memory care offerings in Santa Rosa, Kalra said, as more older adults are seeking to age in place—even if they move into an active adult community and their acuity levels rise.
Construction on the 11,000 square-foot memory care home is underway, Kalra confirmed.
A recent AARP survey found that 75% of adults 50 and older said they would “prefer to stay in their homes as they age,” and in 2024, over 4 million people turned 65. This comes as a Pew Research Center survey found that 54% of people between the ages of 40 and 59 have a living parent age 65 or older staying with them.
“I think it’s unfortunate that active adult doesn’t have the concept of aging in place more widely,” Kalra told MCB. I think that’s a lost opportunity.”
Aging in place can be viewed as a less costly option than assisted living where the average assisted living community costs $5,900 per month or $70,800 annually, and Kalra wants to realize the “lost opportunity” to improve aging in place capabilities of the industry, he added.
Raj Kalra founded the company with Nisha Kalra after his mother’s cancer diagnosis and seeing multiple older family members navigate dementia.
“After about a month of checking out care communities, I told my wife, ‘I think we can do this,’ and we dove headfirst into the world of memory care—our backgrounds really helped,” Kalra told Memory Care Business. “We soon realized that most people moving into a nearby memory care community were coming from this active adult community, and that’s what got us here.”
Aroha and MD Senior Wellness aim to bring evidenced-based operations and memory care services to residents seeking to age in place at the sprawling active adult property. Within memory care, Kalra said, there’s a range of services that older adults might need, noting the varying care levels and acuity of residents within memory care.
“Our goal isn’t just to be a care home—we want to be a longevity-focused community where people enjoy a better quality of life and live longer,” Kalra said. “Aging is becoming more accepted, and people are actively planning for their retirement. I believe this is the future of senior care.”
Moving forward, Kalra sees an opportunity for the senior living industry once development picks up to integrate more aging in place concepts to senior living communities, especially within active adult and independent living. One developer and operator, Avenue Development, has launched a line of communities with a preventative care model with an onsite clinic with primary care provider Sevi Health.
One place, Kalra sees the industry’s memory care sector evolving is through increasing staffing levels and bringing further lifestyle modifications into operations to improve resident health. That could also be coupled with further technology integration to improve memory care staffing efficiency, he added.
“I want to help people and expand this model, and if we can create a viable business at the same time, everyone wins so I hope to do this over and over again,” Kalra said.
