A smile and a hug are all in a day's work for new Arbor Terrace executive director

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As the new executive director at Arbor Terrace Sudley Manor in Manassas, Va., Susan Haynes brings years of experience and passion to a job she loves.

“I’ve been an LPN since 1978,” Haynes says. “I’ve always been interested in geriatrics and I love to be with senior citizens.” She says that seniors are a little of bit of a “forgotten breed,” but that she knows they are the educators about life. “It’s very important to listen to them,” she adds.

A lifelong Virginian, Haynes has worked in health care since the late 70’s, having attended the Fairfax County School of Nursing, and received her training at Fairfax Hospital.

Her prior experience includes work as a skilled charge nurse and in-service director at Mount Vernon Nursing Center, marketing and admissions director for Beverly Health Care, and as an administrator/executive director for independent, assisted and memory care communities in the area, as well as the Potomac Place assisted living administrator for about a decade in Prince William County.

Through the years of her work, Haynes continued to focus on the memory care end of health care and says she always saw things that she wanted to change, do or enhance.

“I honestly think that by taking my administrative skills and my nursing skills and combining them, I can do more,” she says. “I can tell when they’re not feeling well and help with the medical needs of residents and help make them more comfortable.”

She also says that she encourages her team to not focus on what a resident cannot do, but more about what they can do.

“This 72 apartment facility here at Arbor Terrace Sudley Manor is a great match for me. It is a comfortable size and ensures that every resident gets the one-on-one attention needed,” says Haynes.

As a self-professed “hugger,” Haynes says she starts a typical day at work by walking through to the dining room, pouring coffee and checking on folks. She helps the nurses who need it and by the time she’s on her way back to her office, she’s already given — and gotten — more than 20 hugs. Her passion for memory care and Alzheimer’s residents has taught her the importance of remembering that seniors need to be taken care of, so she looks forward to those hugs each and every day.

“Now, I feel I work in a place where you have a choice in making sure that all the activities are vibrant and meaningful. Just to be able to offer that to residents through Arbor’s Gem Level Programming is a great thing,” Haynes says. “Because,” she adds, “life is about so much more than just bingo!”

Photo provided.