Awaiting retirement is what motivates most professionals as they reach their senior years. Whether your goal is to learn, travel, explore a new hobby or simply relax, it is important to find an independent living community that can accommodate your needs. If you are itching to remove the stressful weight that home maintenance puts on your shoulders, consider it time to start touring independent living communities and step into an environment of freedom, culture and activity.
“Here at Abe’s Garden Community (formerly Park Manor), it is our mission to remove stress and replace it with friendships and deep connections,” says Angel Van Horn, Community Relations Specialist at Abe’s Garden Community, the most trusted retirement community in Nashville, TN. “We take all the ‘good stuff’ that is associated with living independently and incorporate educational classes, concerts, shopping trips, discussion groups, personalized exercise classes and much more.”
“Independent living at Abe’s Garden Community means high comfort and low maintenance,” says Angel. “This is made possible by offering six different apartment styles including features like sound-resistant construction, nine-foot ceilings, fully equipped kitchens and individual climate control. We want to ensure our culture and design fit your unique style of living.”
We understand it can be stressful to detect what are the best practices when locating the perfect community for you and your family, so we have collected some of our best tips when beginning the exploration process into independent living.
First Things First
Let’s start by taking a step back and understanding the true meaning of independent living. The goal of this lifestyle is to allow residents to go about their same daily routine without the hassle of homeownership that may have become recently difficult. Most often, independent living provides housing arrangements that are designed exclusively for seniors. At these locations, on-campus amenities and services are provided when needed. At communities like Abe’s Garden Community, residents are given the unique opportunity to connect with like-minded people, participate in community activities, take educational classes, and take advantage of onsite services like daily meals, basic housekeeping and fitness centers.
The fundamental reason independent living communities are vital is that they assist in bridging the gap between adulthood and senior life. As you age, feelings of uneasiness creep up as you recognize the reality of losing your independence. However, as the name suggests, this style of living allows you to keep your personal daily activities while being surrounded by optional care, if and when you need it.
Determine the Communities Mission and If That Aligns with You
A mission and/or purpose statement is how an organization, company, or community communicates what they strive to achieve each day they provide care or assistance. A great example of a mission statement would be Abe’s Garden Community’s personal statement: “For over 50 years, Abe’s Garden Community has served Nashville’s seniors by providing a community designed to support an active, independent, secure, healthy and worry-free lifestyle.” This phrase or sentence allows you and your family to understand the goals of the community without much research or conversation needed.
In order to find the mission statement when touring independent living communities, go to the prospective community’s website and look under their Homepage or within their About Us section. Do your best to make sure your personal morals and beliefs are perfectly aligned with the proposed community you are researching.
First Conversations
Taking into account the first conversation when discussing a prospective senior living community is crucial in order to properly understand the level of respect they show to their community and residents. A wonderful tip is to call the independent living community you are interested in and ask for some information on the services and activities they provide. Specifically ask, “What makes your community different?”, and see how the employee responds. Then, after you end the conversation, be mindful of your gut feeling and how you think that the employee either convinced you or led you astray when explaining the benefits of their campus.
At Abe’s Garden Community, we are dedicated to providing a worry-free lifestyle to our residents that are filled with excitement and personalized wellness. This commitment to our community is what ensures our member’s needs are met while being treated with the utmost respect. We promise every day will be spent learning, listening, or laughing while creating some of the deepest and most authentic friendships in your lifetime.
What Long-Term Services Are Offered?
The next layer when touring independently living communities is taking into account your future self. Making this life-changing transition can be a daunting task and it is best to take responsibility for your future needs now. Consider some of the care and services you may need in the future in accordance with your personal health and make sure the community you are interviewing has that level of care to provide.
Within Abe’s Garden Community, we have spent years perfecting our amenities and services to most accurately fit the needs of our ever-changing and diverse members. Some of the areas of care we provide include concierge services, dining, community activities, medical response, and emphasis on wellness and housekeeping/laundry assistance. If, after assessing the needs of you and your family, you determine your needs align with what our independent living community provides, then you have found a perfect match.
Take Time to Manifest
Manifest is our word for 2021; Within a textbook, it means: easily understood or recognized by the mind. This is a challenging word, however, because it has more to do with a feeling associated with mindfulness. When assessing a senior living community that offers independent living, sit with the conversations, and emotions invoked after virtual touring. Also, keep in mind the architecture, and the inclusivity of events, programs and educational classes that they may offer, as this may give way to a deeper understanding of the senior living community. Make this a peaceful thought process that allows you to recognize the different feelings that are associated with interactions you may have had with this community or its members.
It may take time, and multiple assessments to properly understand if the community is a good fit, but don’t let this timeline scare you. Much like finding the perfect life partner, there are often some ups and downs and confusing turns. Remember, big decisions are hardly a straight-line course. If you keep an open mind, you will find the perfect home for the next stage of your life.
If you would like to take these tips and turn them into action, consider calling us at 615.997.3030 for more information on how we can accommodate you and your needs through our independent living services.