The Jamaica Plain area is home to a number of senior care programs and buildings that offer seniors a way to live happier, healthier lives.
The Gazette caught up with Patrick Stapleton, CEO of the Sherrill House, and Rebekah Levit Executive Director of Rogerson House to learn about what programs they offer as well as about any updates they might have to share.
SHERRILL HOUSE
Stapleton said that Sherrill House, which is a non-profit organization, offers four different types of care for seniors, ranging from short term to long term care. The facility is located at 135 S. Huntington Ave.
The first, he said is “short term care,” which involves orthopedic and cardiac care, post surgery care, or care following a hospital stay. He said this is the care that is provided to the largest number of people each year—between 700 and 800—and provides them with “strength, confidence,” and allows them to “move recovery along quicker.”
He said that the “whole MO” of the short term care program is to have people leave the facility after a number of days “stronger and more confident in your ability to recover alone.”
Sherrill House also offers the “traditional long-care nursing home,” and has about 100 beds on two floors for this kind of care, Stapleton said. He said that residents stay anywhere from two years to up to ten, though it doesn’t happen often that they stay for that long.
“Home care has gotten a lot better,” Stapleton said., but “long term care is always going to be a need.”
He continued, “We’re here to serve Boston residents. Sometimes people need quality care close to home.”
Alzheimer’s care is also a specialty at Sherrill House. In 1986, it opened a “secure unit to allow our Alzheimer’s patients to walk around freely” without worrying about going into traffic or other concerns. “We made that program a little bit better every year,” Stapleton said.
He said this is an “acute unit,” for someone who has dementia or Alzheimer’s and needs help with all tasks, including basic things like taking medicine.
“We have an environment here that we can get outside and be safe,” including a wandering garden and events for residents.
“We’ve got residents that don’t know their families,” he said, but can remember the lyrics to a song they enjoyed as a young person. “If you provide situational opportunities, those memories come back,” he said, so having events with music or grilling food can help evoke memories in these patients.
Hospice care is also something that Sherrill House has worked on for years, but just started its own a month ago, called Longwood Hospice, that they hope to “roll out in every nursing home in the City of Boston.” Stepleton said.
“This hospice was founded and operated by nursing home people. We know what a good hospice is in a facility…we cannot wait to earn the business of the rest of the City of Boston.”
Stapleton also said the pandemic took a toll on the facility, and taught them a lot about how to move forward.
“Now we’re confident that we know what we’re doing,” he said. “We have a fantastic mayor who took this very seriously,” and praised Governor Baker as well.
“Everybody thinks this is over,” he said of the pandemic. “It is far from over at 135 S. Huntington Ave. Masks are going to be in the lexicon of my PPE forever.”
He said that while face masks will require additional costs, “We don’t mess around here,” adding that “every single person in the building” is still tested every other day, and masks and proof of vaccination continue to be required, despite any lifting of those restrictions in other sectors.
Visitors are allowed to come into the building 24/7, but they must attest to not having symptoms of COVID-19 per federal and state guidelines, which Sherrill House abides by.
“We don’t make any of those rules,” Stapleton said of the visitor policy. “We don’t rally against those decisions. We don’t do anything but applaud those decisions.”
Right now, Stapleton said that he and the rest of Sherrill House are “very focused on the future,” though there is still “a lot of trepidation and a lot of concern” surrounding the pandemic. “We try to be very good to Boston’s elders. We’re grateful for where we are right now, and grateful for where we’re headed.”
Ada, Fumia, Director of IT for Sherrill House, added that he believes that “we’re a better, more capable, more prepared organization right now.”
ROGERSON HOUSE
Rogerson House Executive Director Rebekah Levit explained that “we were the first assisted living in the state of Massachusetts that was dedicated solely to the care of people who have memory issues. All of our residents have some form of dementia or Alzheimer’s.”
Rogerson House has been in the neighborhood for abut 25 years, and is located at 434 Jamaicaway. The facility offers an assisted living as well as a social day program and serves about 66 residents. Altogether, there are about 75 staff members.
The social day program has reopened after being closed due to the pandemic. The program runs from 8:30am to 3:00pm, and begins with breakfast followed by different programs and activities based on what people are interested in, as well as classes with a fitness specialist and a music therapist, and brain games.
She said that this program is “one of the few day programs that has opened post-pandemic.”
For the assisted living, Rogerson House follows a “social model, not a medical model,” Levin said, and residents are between 62 and 102 years old.
Staff work with the residents on daily tasks as well as other programming throughout the day.
Levin said that Rogerson House’s mission is “really trying to understand where our residents are coming from and what they’re trying to tell us and what they need. We talk a lot about how we are partners with the residents. We are not completely in charge here; our residents are in charge and it’s our job to work with them, to partner with them, to support them.”
As far as COVID-19 policies go, visitors to Rogerson House must wear masks at all times, and staff are tested weekly and also masked at all times while working with residents.
Levin said that there is a “higher than normal” level of sanitizing throughout the facility.
“We have just really fully opened our doors to family visitors,” she said. “They can visit in any part of the community at any time; we’re very happy to get back to that.”
Additionally, Rogerson House has a large outdoor space that Levin described as a “little oasis in the city.” It features a large lawn, walking paths, and a gazebo, and many community events also take place on the property, form local karate classes to JP movie nights this coming summer.
“We’re trying to find ways to work with the community to offer that for others to use it as well,” Levin said, adding that “we’re very lucky” to have a space like that