The campus located on Catherine Street in Cortlandt has served local residents for many decades. A portion of the property is now the site of the Yorktown Assisted Living Residence.
Southeast resident Diana Penna, the administrator of the assisted living facility, noted last week that it is the former site of FIELDHOME and had been a FIELDHOME campus since the 1880’s. Yorktown Assisted Living is housed in the building that formerly housed the Seabury at FIELDHOME, she noted. The current owners changed the name in April 2018.
There are two programs offered at the facility. “We have assisted living for people who are independent but need custodial care. They need assistance with their medication. They might need some help bathing or dressing or just maybe need some oversight,” Penna said.
“We also have 40 apartments for people who have dementia, cognitive impairment, some type of cognitive illness,” continued Penna, adding the memory care program is for people with special needs.
The assisted living program is like living in a condominium, Penna said. “Except if you have an issue there’s a call bell in your apartment,” she said. “An LPN (licensed practical nurse) or a home health aide will respond to you and get you whatever assistance you need.”
The residents’ monthly fee includes the cost of Internet service, Direct TV, telephone service, three meals a day, laundry, housekeeping, and transportation for shopping and doctors’ visits, Penna said. Some assisted living residents own cars.
Restaurant-style dining is provided for assisted living residents in a dining room, Penna said.
Assisted living residents have a council that decides what field trips they want to take. Some of the past trips have included outings to the Empire City Casino in Yonkers, Lake Mahopac for lunch and Yankee Stadium. The council also advocates which recreational programs are offered in the assisted living facility itself, she said.
“Memory care is more hands-on,” Penna said. People living in the memory care portion of the facility need help with dressing and bathing, for example, she said. “Nobody can get off the unit unescorted,” she said. A wandering garden the size of a football field is on site to allow memory care residents to go in and out of.
Memory care residents have their meals served family style with staff invited to eat with them, Penna said.
Activity therapists are assigned to work with the memory care residents. “They do activities that are geared toward different levels of cognitive impairment,” Penna said. Programs are offered to memory care residents usually every 45 to 60 minutes, she said. “Some people do it all. Some choose and do one or two,” she said.
Penna credited the work of the staff at the assisted living and memory care sites. “We have some people who have been with us for 15 years,” she said. “You have a dedicated group of people who work here who are really very, very caring and become part of the residents’ family.”
Source: The Examiner
