Cypress Cove at HealthPark Florida’s nationally acclaimed assisted living memory care neighborhood, The Cottage, has chosen as the nation’s first memory care facility to undergo an extensive evaluation by the Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments (SAGE).
The Michigan based organization (SAGE) will be at Cypress Cove today (January 22) collecting research regarding community designs that provide the best concepts in resident lifestyle living. This information will then be distributed throughout the nation’s senior housing industry.
The 40,000 square feet of the state-of-the art Cottage at Cypress Cove was selected by SAGE as their first memory care evaluation site to have its facility design and programming techniques reviewed. A noted six-member team of experts in senior living design toured The Cottage – evaluating every aspect of the two-story facility’s four 11-resident households, including common areas such as its lush outdoor tropical garden, and including its back-of-the house support facilities.
SAGE selected The Cottage at Cypress Cove from among hundreds of national memory care facilities because its ground-breaking designs as a memory care facility. In 2017, architects of the newly opened memory care facility won SAGE’s national Award of Merit for design. Information submitted during the award review process is being used as cross reference material by the evaluation team for determining the effects of the facility design and its specialized person-centered care on resident comfort and behavior.
“We are honored to have been selected as SAGE’s first evaluation site,” says Michele Wasserlauf, Executive Director of the 48-acre Life Plan Community in Fort Myers.
“Since opening, The Cottage has received outstanding reviews for its unique and innovative home-like environment where the dignity and well-being of residents are met in the highest of quality. The households’ design, purposely built for residents with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, has allowed our staff to provide wonderfully fresh person-centered care to residents in our four 11-apartment neighborhoods and also gives those residents a sense of personal freedom.
“We are thrilled with an opportunity to support the evaluation of an industry seeking even better approaches to serving those who suffer from loss of memory,” she adds.