The Retreat at Alameda Community boasts technological advances BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI Senior living and memory care centers are few and far between in the North Valley, so The Retreat at Alameda feels it’s filling a void. “There’s nothing in the immediate area,” says Toni Grimm, sales director. “It’s been a good opportunity. There are so many neighborhoods around here. There are adult children looking for assisted living or memory care for parents. Most our referrals are all from adult children. We usually have parents looking for themselves, but because technology has changed so much, they leave it up to their kids. “They let kids do all the research, look at property online and get all the information.” Owned by Astoria Health Care and managed by Paradigm Senior Living, the recently opened The Retreat at Alameda boasts 72 studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments in assisted living and 32 private care or shared two-bedroom apartments. Grimm says her community is different from others. A “true” chef who attended culinary school prepares a wide variety of food for the residents. “Everything he’s doing is scratch-based
ingredients.” Technology is important to The Retreat at Alameda, too. In most communities, residents wear pendants around their neck to alert staff to come find them. “With those types of pendants, if, say, Fred falls in the courtyard, the caregivers go to his apartment and, if he’s not there, they spend 20 minutes trying to figure out where he is. “We have Blue Willow, which they wear on their wrist. It looks like a fit bit with a GPS trackable system in it. It’ll alert the staff immediately that he’s in the courtyard, not the apartment. It has a fall indicator in it. If Fred’s knocked unconscious, it alerts The Retreat at Alameda is owned by Astoria Health Care and managed by Paradigm Senior Living. The new us.” building boasts 72 studios, fresh food, a GPS tracking system to monitor residents and watch for portential falls, The other component of that, and a full activities calendar. (Photos courtesy of The Retreat at Alameda) as with any technology, is the He makes a new soup every day for lunch families can download the tracker in their fresh food,” she says. “They can still get a burger and fries for and dinner. phone and track where their parents are. “That’s one of the things that sets us lunch, but others are amazing. He makes Alameda...continues on page 13 a chicken pot pie for dinner. Homemade apart. We don’t use soup every day. Today we have sausage a lot of processed and white bean soup. Yesterday was his food. He’s using small own chili. He’s made French onion soup. vendors to get local
The Retreat at Alameda
1920 W. Alameda Drive, Phoenix 602-320-0437 retreatseniorliving.com facebook.com/RetreatAtAlameda
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JUNE 2021
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