03/14/08

Caring Care

by MitchKotula

My 92 yearold mother, suffering from Alzheimers disease, has been a resident at Rio Vista for almost a year and a half. "different behaviors" are accommodated and she is respectfully treated as a person. I am continually amazed and grateful to everyone there for how well they attend to all the residents, many of which are totally dependent on every aspect of their existence.

Rio Vista regularly conducts special events, luncheons and celebrations, complete with special foods, entertainment, photos and acknlowedgements. A monthly newsletter highlights birthdays, patient of the month and detailed event schedules.

Special events and holidays are celebrated. For example, on Cinco de Mayo, the staff brings in home-made specialty foods for residents and visitors and a mariachi band plays while the director grills carne asada for tacos and there are dancers and singers for entertainment. A family atmosphere prevails.

While visiting my mother during lunch, I am given a soda and am welcome to have a cup of coffee or muffins and cookies brought into the morning session. An active and varied activity schedule includes speakers,entertainers, music sessions, painting, carrot cake making and animal visits. It is a tough crowd of stroke and alzheimer patients, along with other assorted recuperative patients, but the activity staff really tries to keep the residents active and involved.

Meals are served in the dining room and in the patients' rooms without fuss. Dietary restrictions are followed by tailored portions, forms of preparation and are very indivdualized.

It is OK to see visitors regularly helping the staff by moving residents to tables, or to their rooms and helping them with their coffee or kleenex. My mother could not receive better care. She, and her fellow residents, are in good hands and both my father and I are very comfortable and pleased to be part of the Rio Vista family.

• Pros: Caring staff