Salinas, California Assisted Living Community

A Wonderful Active Lifestyle

Emeritus at Harden Ranch is as close to home as you can get without being in your own home. In fact, many of our residents tell us how much they appreciate our warm, cozy atmosphere that they say “wraps its arms around them.” Our living rooms are furnished with large comfy sofas; don’t be surprised if you see someone napping! Big plush chairs are set up around our fireplace, while classical musical plays in the background. Outside, our spacious patio, with its wicker chairs, tables and umbrellas, is the perfect place to enjoy outdoor parties and social events. We also have a beautiful rose garden, where we hold family barbeques and where residents tend their own vegetable garden. In addition, we’re located in a lovely residential area with views of our beautifully landscaped neighborhood grounds with and mountains in the distance. From the way we have furnished our common areas to our loving, caring staff, we have done everything possible to make sure our community is easily accessible and that our residents feel right at home – we even welcome small pets to our family!

We have two full-time activities directors; one for assisted living and one for our memory care residents. All of our residents enjoy morning exercise programs designed to help build flexibility and muscle strength. For our assisted living residents, we host casino nights right here at the community, afternoon teas every Thursday and Happy Hour on Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have sing-alongs led by a local guitarist, and, most days, our residents are able to participate in some kind of arts and crafts activity, as well as games. In addition, our assisted living residents often make sandwiches for our local soup kitchen. Activities for our memory care residents are designed to keep them stimulated and engaged. For example, recently they made bird feeders and decorated Christmas ornaments for local children. One of our memory care residents led a cooking class during which she taught other residents to make enchiladas. People who have memory impairments often get very few opportunities to socialize with one another, which can lead to depression. So we plan many social activities – dances, holiday and birthday parties, ice cream socials and musical performances – which helps prevent residents from isolating in their rooms. Some residents who had not been much for interacting with others when they lived on their own end up being our biggest partiers! We also have theme dinners for all of our residents; on Mother’s Day we prepared a fantastic champagne brunch, with eggs benedict, fruit and croissants with homemade jam. For Father’s Day, we had a traditional barbecue with ribs and all the fixings. We honor our residents on their birthdays, with balloons, music, cake and ice cream. The Fourth of July and Veteran’s Days are also a big deal here at Harden Ranch and are celebrated with great food and fanfare!

Partnering with the Local Neighborhood Community

We actively partner with an organization called CARE (Community Awareness Related to the Elderly) and provide a variety of speakers for CARE events. For example, we may have a physician talking about the Alzheimer’s disease process, or around the holidays, we might bring in a speaker to address taking care of the caregiver. We also work closely with the local Alzheimer’s Association and participate in its Memory Walk to raise money for the organization.

Fine Dining

Our Dining Services Director provides three meals a day, and three snacks a day for all residents. We tend to serve “comfort food” – the kinds of meals that our residents remember from their younger years; hearty soups in the winter; chicken served with string beans, broccoli, creamed corn and scalloped potatoes; old-fashioned apple pie. Our Resident Food Counsel is very active in helping us plan our menus, letting us know what they like and don’t like or if they have special requests. What about special dietary needs? When a new assisted living or memory care resident moves in, we know in advance if he or she requires a more restrictive diet. We can accommodate virtually any special requirement, including residents with diabetes or food allergies. In fact, as part of welcoming new residents, we assign each person an “Angel” – one of our directors, who is responsible for looking out for that person. If the Angel notices that the resident isn’t eating right and losing weight, we will schedule a care conference with the family to discuss the situation and come up with a plan. Perhaps it is as simple as bringing the resident a hot breakfast to their rooms on occasion or making sure their refrigerators are stocked with their favorite finger foods. Our menus are closely coordinated with our
nutritionist – an especially important consideration for memory care residents, who can’t tell us if they don’t like something. In addition, we are very sensitive to the special needs of our memory care residents. For example, because it is difficult for someone with a memory impairment to distinguish items of similar color from one another, we ensure that we present our meals on plates and table cloths in contrasting colors.