ENHANCED ASSISTED LIVING AND ACUITY CARE
We promise to love and care for
your family as we do our own.
Moving a loved one to an assisted living community is an emotionally charged process with many moving parts. Our owners, leadership, and teams—who have worked in and around seniors for most of their careers—never met a family who wanted to endure the experience twice. So, from a place of deep understanding and in the spirit of thoughtful service, The Kensington White Plains obtained an enhanced assisted living license (EALR). Acuity care levels and individual needs are met with this licensing, and The Kensington’s approach.
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Our Enhanced Assisted Living License
Our license enables us to provide not only traditional assisted living support but also a full spectrum of clinical care that addresses challenging medical conditions. We are trained, staffed, and legally able to care for residents who are the frailest of the frail or sickly. In other words, we welcome residents whose care needs are complex, and we don’t ask them to leave if their care needs become more complex over time.
We believe the comfort of familiarity is precious and an important contribution to the well-being of our residents. As a result, we have ensured our ability to help them easily and comfortably make our home theirs, for as long as they choose. Other nearby communities hold licenses for only a fraction of their beds. If the health of their residents deteriorates to the degree that they require enhanced care, then they must move out if no licensed beds are available.
Here, EVERY BED in our community is licensed for enhanced assisted living support and levels of acuity care. Our care is more comprehensive than that of other nearby assisted living providers, which distinguishes us from these other resources. We are able and willing to assist residents who need:
If you have questions about the care our team at The Kensington White Plains can provide, please don’t wait to get in touch with us.
- Hoyer Lift to support safer transfers
- Feeding tubes, IVs or catheters
- Wound care
- Insulin injections
- Specialized diets, including pureed, for easier swallowing
- Assistance due to movement disorders, and more
- Enhanced memory care support
For a complete listing of the physical and cognitive conditions we can manage, visit our detailed page.
Our Ability to Care for Seniors Who Need Specialized Assistance
Team Members
Our team is one of our proudest contributions to share. We hire and continually train consummate professionals with sharp minds and big hearts. We seek out people who are highly skilled in their areas of expertise and who are driven to serve.
- Our nursing team is generous. A team of nurses is on-site each day, and several are on-site overnight to provide for all levels of acuity care.
- Certified care managers are individually partnered with our residents to support their ongoing needs with services that are clinically comprehensive and personalized.
- A dedicated transportation/scheduling director manages all the details of doctors’ appointments and routinely keeps families in the loop about health concerns, medication changes, and any other information that warrants attention.
The Kensington provides Assisted Living care that goes beyond traditional support, offering a full spectrum of services that meet your loved one’s unique needs.
Preventive and Proactive Physical Care
We take a preventative and proactive approach when caring for our residents. Our specialized programs are designed to help us ward off illness, preserve physical strength and boost morale.
- Rehabilitative therapies—physical, occupational, and speech—are located on-site, which makes them easy to access with greater frequency.
- Clinical support for our residents includes functional assessments; falls and balance assessments; wellness seminars; and fitness classes to promote stability and increase strength.
- Hydration stations are located throughout the community, and we conduct hydration checks several times a day to prevent dehydration.
- We track weight and blood pressure monthly, or weekly for at-risk residents, to look for changes that signal the potential for an underlying condition.
- We use a bladder scanner to monitor urinary retention, which reduces the chance of infection and the need for catheterization.
- We are equipped to assist residents with high acuity care for chronic challenges including but not limited to congestive heart failure, diabetes, incontinence, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, Lewy body dementia, and frontal lobe dementia.
Two-Tiered Cognitive Care Approach
We specialize in two tiers of memory care support, delivered by caregivers who are specially trained in each phase of Alzheimer’s or dementia progression.
- Our enhanced caregiver-to-resident ratio means more supervision and companionship for residents in the highest acuity dementia neighborhood.
- Cognitive stimulating programs incorporate easy, fun techniques and games to improve and maintain memory function and foster social communication.
- We use music therapy as a vehicle for connection and a bridge to our residents’ memories and to each other.
- Live pet therapy and robopets decrease anxiety and increase interaction with others.
- Pocket programs cater to each resident’s unique interests.
Collaborative Partner Approach
We do best what we know best. But when we need specific insight, services, or expertise, then we appeal to our wide network of specialty providers.
- We partner with trusted specialty experts whenever necessary to help guide our decisions.
- We provide educational programs led by our community professional partners and certified leadership team to keep our families current about topics such as advances in treatment protocols, preferred care regimens, and financial or legal decision-making.
- Our full-time healthcare team, along with a team of physicians and several on-site nurses, work side-by-side to handle crises whenever they arise.
Caring for older adults who are not feeling well or who have multiple medical conditions requires expertise, vigilance, agility, patience, and devotion. We are proud to share that our team here at The Kensington embodies a blend of these qualities. Together, we are committed to taking innovative and progressive steps to make life for our frail residents as joyful, comfortable, and safe as possible.
Multiple Sclerosis Care
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system – the brain and the spinal cord. It is thought to be an autoimmune disease, in which the body’s defense system attacks and damages myelin, the insulating material that surrounds and protects the nerve fibers of the brain and spinal cord.
The needs that are generated by progressive MS can be met by some assisted living communities; however, those with more severe MS may not be appropriate in all facilities. For example, many assisted living programs might not have the resources to have a comprehensive and on-site equipment program; many assisted living communities cannot and do not accept those who require a pureed diet (necessary for those who have dysphagia) or feeding tube; many assisted livings cannot accept those who are wheelchair bound; and many facilities do not have round the clock nursing supervision necessary for many severe MS patients. Plus, in some assisted living communities comprehensive on-site rehabilitation therapies (occupational, physical and speech therapies) are not part of the usual cluster of services offered to residents and those with MS require these amenities to help control symptoms.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Care
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost.
Many late stage ALS patients require around-the-clock care. Almost all assisted living communities in the area cannot care for a senior who requires such a high level of care. But, The Kensington is different. We are licensed as an Enhanced Assisted Living Residence. This license allows us to take care of folks with no care needs to those who have very high needs. We can and do take care of seniors who require a pureed diet, wheelchair-bound, and much more. We can successfully address the needs of seniors with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Physical therapy and exercise can enhance an individual’s independence and safety throughout the course of ALS. The Kensington has partnered with Theradynamics Rehabilitation to provide a customized in-house program of physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, to help maintain muscle strength and optimize functioning as much as possible for persons with ALS. Through this program, we offer daily stretching, strengthening and other exercises, help to relieve spasticity, increase strength and mobility, and help alleviate some symptoms of ALS.
Experiencing Caregiver Burnout?
If you’re the primary caregiver for an individual with high acuity care needs, “caregiver burnout” is a very real—and very common—problem. Caregiver burnout is a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion that occurs when someone is responsible for the long-term care of another person 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Caregivers often experience symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, stress and depression. They feel guilty when they take time out for themselves—or neglect their own physical and emotional needs altogether. At some point, even the most devoted caregiver may need to turn over a significant portion of the loved one’s care to professionals. It’s emotionally very difficult to place a loved one in a long-term care facility like assisted living, but his or her medical needs, or a caregiver illness, financial realities or other factors may make this essential.
At The Kensington, we believe that caregivers shouldn’t have to shoulder the burden alone—we’re here to help and we are dedicated to the long-term care of people with ALS, thus allowing the caregiver to go back to playing the role of daughter/son or well-spouse. We understand the challenges of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and have the ability to help with daily living activities and nursing needs to offer the highest level of comfort.