Commonwealth Senior Living offers residents the opportunity to enjoy an engaging lifestyle while aging in place. This means that while an individual’s care needs may change, their home, hobbies, and interests don’t have to.
Commonwealth Assurance
Our enhanced cleaning and infection prevention measures are designed to circumvent any potential threat. With Commonwealth Assurance, we have the ability to put these safeguards and reassurances in place to provide every family with peace of mind.
Dining Delights
Dining Delights introduces unique events, coordinated by our Dining Services Team and Resident Program Directors, to our residents and families. It highlights our dining teams’ culinary skills at least once each month with a theme focused on local, regional, national, or international events. Our communities have come up with amazing ideas like jiaozi pot stickers and shamrock shakes to coordinate with our Travel the World destinations.
Eversound
Eversound is a wireless headphone system with noise-cancelling technology which helps our residents focus on speakers, sound sources and enhances small group conversations and activities. This technology has been vital in enhancing communication, engagement as well as helping or residents with memory loss maintain independence through a more focused and clear mode of communication.
Family Night
At Commonwealth Senior Living, we know family is everything. Family Night is an opportunity for families, residents, and associates to spend time together and get to know one another in a relaxed and comfortable setting. It’s a time for the caregiving team to build relationships with you and your loved one as a part of our family.
Farm-to-Table Dining
85% of our produce is sourced locally by 47 farms across our communities’ markets. Local produce results in more nutrient-rich meals, support to the local economy, and a smaller carbon footprint. For select communities, Farm-to-Table dining includes a Babylon Microfarm inside the dining room. Babylon is among the first of its kind in the senior living industry and is part of our commitment to providing residents with fresh, locally sourced vegetables which are proven to have numerous benefits to seniors including reducing blood pressure, lowering the risk of heart disease, and promoting higher brain activity.
For select communities, Farm-to-Table dining includes a Babylon Microfarm inside the dining room: NBC29 visits microfarm at CSL at Charlottesville.
Fresh Baked Bread
There is something very nostalgic about the smell of fresh baked bread wafting through our residents’ dining room. It evokes thoughts of warmth, comfort and is wholesome. A fresh baked roll or biscuit offers a sense of familiarity that can lift your mindset as you taste it.
MyndVR
Imagine being able to revisit the street you played on as a child, from the comfort of your own home you live in as an adult. This is the beauty of the virtual reality experience for our residents. MyndVR headsets allow our residents to fly in an airplane, walk through a flower garden, or play with a room full of puppies – all from their own suite. This evidence-based technology offers the sensation of being out on an adventure, which has positive health benefits such as increased attention, improved motor skills and orientation. Not to mention it is really, really fun!! VR Takes This Elderly Couple Back To The Places They Visited a Long Time Ago!
Smile Technology
SMILE is a complimentary communication tool we use at Commonwealth Senior Living which allows families, residents and the Resident Programs team, to stay connected no matter where they are. With the use of SMILE, messages can be sent, pictures uploaded, and music or videos can be shared. Families can also communicate directly with the Resident Programs team and receive pictures and videos through SMILE message by logging into their own SMILE account.
Our Promise To Veterans
At Commonwealth Senior Living, we honor those who have served our country with much pride and respect. We have created the Wall of Valor Program to show how much their service means to us. All our veterans’ pictures are displayed on the Wall of Valor, representing them throughout the community in Assisted Living and Sweet Memories™. Each veteran has a service star placed outside the door of their suite to identify them as a veteran. Throughout the year, the community holds Veteran Appreciation programs to honor those who have given so much.
Program of Fine Arts
Nearly everyone, at some point in their lives, has participated in the fine arts. They may be a musician or a lover of music, a dancer or a ballet enthusiast. Maybe they come alive as a writer or as an avid reader of classic literature. Through the Program of Fine Arts, we engage or re-engage those who have a long history of creative pursuits, by offering a fine arts program that includes; creative writing, art, dance, theatre, music and literature.
Today From the Bay
Commonwealth Senior Living is proud to partner with Sam Rust Seafood, a locally owned seafood distributor since 1938. This partnership supports local fishermen and at the same time brings fresh, sustainable seafood directly to our residents. These fishermen are providing Commonwealth Senior Living with scallops, oysters, shrimp, trout, bass, clams, crab, and flounder.
Travel the World
This unique resident program takes our CSL residents on new and exciting adventures discovering our world. Each year hosts a new theme such as Road Trip USA, Back to the Future –Decades, and Dream Vacation Destinations. During the year, each month takes us to a different locale to experience the sights, sounds, tastes and culture of our destination. Our monthly Resident Programs Calendar is filled with exciting Travel the World events through-out the month, along with our many other programs that engage our residents on a daily basis.
Memory Care
Our Sweet Memories™ Neighborhood features award-winning programs specifically designed to elevate and enhance the experience of our residents with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Expressions Art Program
This Sweet Memories™ program gives an opportunity to draw out meaningful self-expression when an individual’s verbal and other communication skills become compromised. While someone with memory loss may not be able to tell us what they are thinking with words, with guidance from our specially trained Resident Programs team, they may be able to use art to communicate in a new and exciting way.
Family Resource Center
We want anyone who comes to our communities to have everything they need as they navigate caring for someone with memory loss. Education and knowledge can help alleviate the stress of the unknown. Our Sweet Memories Resource Center offers books, brochures, DVDs and other information on dementia and memory loss. These resources are available free of charge.
Life Kits
Life Kits are a collection of familiar, themed items that can be used to engage residents in conversation and reminiscing about familiar and enjoyable life events. Each Life Kit includes items related to work, play, relaxation, and other familiar activities of daily life that can be used to initiate conversation, promote wellbeing, and alleviate stress. As we get to know each individual resident, a specific Life Kit related to their life and hobbies may be created as well.
Life Stations
Life Stations are universally familiar “scenes” recreated in the Sweet Memories™ neighborhood. There may be a kitchen station with bowls and cookbooks that encourage a homemaker to remember those warm and inviting memories of caring for her family. An office desk and telephone to help a businessperson continue to engage in the work that was so meaningful to them. They can also function as a way for our residents to navigate the Sweet Memories neighborhood.
Life Stories
Understanding who our residents are and where they have come from is the foundation of our Sweet Memories™ program. Knowing each individual’s history allows us to provide person-centered care in ways that are both positive and meaningful to the residents, their families and our team.
Serenity Room
Our Serenity Room is a calm and soothing sensory room, in the Sweet Memories™ neighborhood, that residents use to rest and relax anytime of the day. If they are frustrated or feeling overwhelmed associates may accompany them to the Serenity Room to sit and enjoy some gentle music, soothing videos, and pleasing scents. The Serenity room is also a wonderful quiet place for family to gather.
Special Touch
In our Sweet Memories™ Neighborhoods, we offer each resident a very special touch prior to lunch and dinner. Special Touch is warm, scented towels presented to each resident prior to their meal. At lunch time, the towels are scented with citrus oil to awaken the taste buds and promote appetite, and in the evening, they are scented with lavender to sooth residents and prepare them to relax and promote a restful night’s sleep.
Support Group
One of the most powerful things we can hear when we are experiencing pain and loss is, “Me too!” Knowing that you are not alone in this journey is extremely important, which is why Commonwealth Senior Living offers a Memory Loss & Dementia Support Group to all of our family members and the community. This is an opportunity for anyone to share their caregiving journey.
Sweet Melodies
Music touches each of us like nothing else can. Music is stored in all parts of the brain, and because of this, it is remembered throughout life, even for those with memory loss. Our Sweet Melodies Program brings those familiar lyrics and toes tapping tunes to our residents in a very personal way. Through the use of headphones and music play lists, that are specific to each individual, we help them create positive and happy moments that will keep the smiles coming and their hands clapping.
The Sweet Life
We know it takes every one of us at Commonwealth Senior Living to create sweet moments for our Sweet Memories™ residents each day. The Sweet Life is a method of delivering resident programs and personal care as a team to efficiently accomplish more together. In doing so, we enhance the resident experience and engage our associates in warm and purposeful experiences that make everyone smile.