Gardens at Westlake to Add $4 Million Dementia Care Unit

is adding a 24-unit dementia care wing, complete with a spa, salon and gardens. The unit will bring add 20 employees to the center's staff of 60.

The $4 million one-story unit will be built from the ground up with Alzheimer’s and other dementia patients in mind, said Christina Melarango, executive director.

The overall goal is to provide a home environment for residents, who will be able to bring pets and host overnight visitors.

“This will truly be their home and we’re here to facilitate a family-like atmosphere for them and for their families,” Melarango said.

New technology like sleep monitoring systems will help staff keep tabs on residents. The system can tell when residents are in bed and monitor their quality of sleep.

“That way we’ll know how much deep sleep they have and how effective that person will be the next day,” Melarango said. “We’ll know when they get up and we can do some fall prevention.”

The wing will also have high security with alarms and a guardian system so that staff can find residents throughout the building.

“I definitely think what residents are going to find is it’s not an area in the building we locked and created a supervised area,” Melarango said. “This is going to be innovative but I think what a lot of locked communities lack is the whole building is customized with their diseases in mind.”

Residents will be able to enjoy many sensory activities like aromatherapy, music and art. Even the décor has been specially designed with dementia patients’ needs in mind.

“We’re looking at a lot of sensory enhancement,” Melarango said. “Lots of things on the wall, not a busy carpet. You don’t want to have a white toilet in a white bathroom where it will be hard to discern where it is.”

The kitchen will provide small meals and snacks for residents, depending on their appetites.

Staff will be specially trained and assigned to the unit to provide continuity for residents. Oncoming staff will be working with local hospitals on staff development now through the opening.

The plans will go before the city’s Planning Commission for final approval in September, and Melarango said construction should break ground in March. Residents are projected to move in by late summer 2012.