Hopkins Long-Term Care Facility Makes Residents Feel at Home

Walk into 601 Oak Ridge Road home, and you’re immediately struck by the warmth of hard woods. A spacious kitchen, luxurious living room and beautiful backyard with deck all add to the ambience. Then there’s a dog named Daisy, a cat named Angel and two birds, Sunny and Sky, who add a spark of life to the elegance.

This isn’t the home of a wealthy suburban family, though. The house is an 8-bed residential care facility specializing in memory care—specifically illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Grace Homes, as the business is named, is a three-year-old company that started in Hopkins on July 1. A crew of certified nursing assistants—overseen by wife and husband owners Bethany Buchanan and Charles Scott—care for residents in the secure but homelike setting.

“I really feel strongly that this is the best model of care for the elderly. It’s small. It’s personal. It’s intimate,” Buchanan said.

Buchanan is a registered nurse who spent eight years in hospital settings and four years in long-term care. That background gives her the ability to care for patients with severe health issues beyond the memory-related illnesses that are the business’ specialty.

But as the home’s atmosphere suggests, the focus is on quality of life—not just treating illnesses. The food residents eat is mostly local and organic. They exercise every day, including with a physical fitness specialist who comes in three times a week. They get massages once a month. They listen to old, familiar songs while singing and playing hand instruments.

There’s also aromatherapy and, during the winter, light box therapy to keep residents’ vitamin D levels up and boost their mood. Buchanan and Scott pride themselves on rarely using psychotropic drugs with patients. They didn’t have any residents on that type of medication when Patch visited a week ago.

The team spends as much time engaging the residents as providing for them. The residents feed the pets and water the plants because caring for living beings stimulates memory care patients. They also participate in other light chores, such as getting the mail, that keeps them active—vital because memory care patients can sit for 10 hours at a time if not encouraged.

“They want to feel purposeful, and they need to move,” Buchanan said.

For Grace Homes, the warm atmosphere, the healthy living and the activities all contribute to one goal: Making residents feel at home.

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Want to learn more about Grace Homes? The home will host an open house from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. May 20 at the facility, located at 601 Oak Ridge Road. The open house is just one way the business is connecting with the community. It has joined it local neighborhood association and will continue taking its residents on outings to local places, such as Dairy Queen and the Farmers’ Market. “We’ve just had a terrific welcome from Hopkins,” Buchanan said.

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