Lafayette Retirement Community

A Wonderful Active Lifestyle

Every day starts with an exercise program, followed by fruit smoothies. Our walking club heads out at 11 a.m. for a stroll around our neighborhood. Throughout the day, residents play all kinds of games – bingo is one of the most popular – and there are many opportunities to cook, bake and make crafts – they are always making fun gifts for their grandchildren! Our Catholic residents say the Rosary together every day.

Our retirement community is also big on parties – we have a big birthday bash once a month with a band, balloons, cake and ice cream. We have house-warming parties for our new residents, as well as weekly coffee or lemonade socials. We celebrate all of the holidays. This past Valentine’s Day, we crowned two residents king and queen; a violinist entertained us while residents dance. During Mardi Gras we hired a DJ, who led our residents in line dance after line dance. Every Monday is errand day, when we take residents shopping, to the bank and to the post office. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we take residents to their doctor appointments. Friday morning is reserved for residents who want to go to services at nearby Holy Cross Church. And on Sundays, some of our local churches will come by to pick up residents for services.

Partnering with the Local Neighborhood Community

Every month, a physician with the Alzheimer’s Association leads a support group/educational meeting for our families and for any interested community members. Typically, participants will arrive around 6:00 p.m. and discuss any issues or concerns, then the doctor arrives around 6:30 and is open to answering questions or discussing specific topics of interest. We also participate as a sponsor in the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s, formerly the Memory Walk, to raise money for Alzheimer’s research.

We also partner with many home health and hospice groups, which come into our community to speak with our residents and families about a specific topic – for example, how to handle grief, how family members can deal with feelings of guilt and denial, the stigma around hospice care, the importance of therapy, among other subjects. And we have begun to partner with the American Heart Association, which is hosting monthly educational programs during which a local doctor will come in to educate residents on such topics as stroke awareness, diet and exercise. We always invite the outside community to all of these events. And just recently a group of our residents have formed together to do fund-raising for a charity of their choice.

Fine Dining

We offer three meals a day, served restaurant style, including an entrée, an alternative and an always-available menu with salads, soups, hamburgers and sandwiches. So residents always have a choice. They can also wander into the kitchen at any time of the day and ask our wonderful chefs to prepare something just for them. Our menu is very “senior friendly,” with less salt and less sugar. And we take resident suggestions to heart. Every other month, our food committee meets. One of the items on the agenda is to select a recipe from a resident for our chefs to prepare. Breakfast is always extremely well attended – our biscuits are the best! And yogurt, sandwiches, fruit plates, muffins and other snacks are available throughout the day.

Our memory care residents are served three main meals and three mini meals, which include a protein such as peanut butter or cheese. Meals are served on colored plates, so that they can distinguish their food better. Residents with memory impairments often don’t eat enough, because the disease attacks areas of the brain, impacting their ability to recognize if they are thirsty or hungry. So we work hard to make sure their weight stays stable, and we pass beverages around every two hours to keep them well hydrated. In fact, we sit with them and encourage them to drink until they do. They can become very susceptible to urinary tract infections, which can have devastating consequences.