Tag: retirement community

Ways to decorate a senior living apartment… to reflect you!

Decorating a senior living apartment is a journey of self-expression and creativity. It’s an opportunity to curate a space that mirrors your personality, fosters comfort, radiates charm and creates your home.

In all our Diakon senior living communities, we encourage residents to express their personality and creativity in their apartments. With a few tips and tricks, you can explore the art of transforming your living space into a haven of style and functionality.

Click here to dive into the world of design and embark on a delightful adventure in crafting a home that’s uniquely yours!

Why retiring in Pennsylvania is a good idea

When you envision your retirement, where do you picture yourself? Maybe you think of the beach or the mountains. Perhaps you see yourself in a big city or a quiet neighborhood. You can settle down anywhere without your job tying you to a specific region.

“Retirement is a celebrated time in life in which seniors can live to the fullest extent. But seniors often face tough financial decisions during this time,” says Cindy Bonney, Vice President for Sales & Marketing at Diakon Senior Living Services.

“In the tax-friendly state of Pennsylvania, older adults stand to benefit from many incentives, rebates and exemptions that can ease this stress.”

Here at Diakon Senior Living, we can help make this transition easier. We are here to provide for the needs of you or your loved one. This includes financial information, such as tax benefits, that will help protect your nest egg and stretch your dollar when retiring in Pennsylvania.

For example, Pennsylvania retirees enjoy full exemptions on all retirement income, including Social Security benefits, pension income (for those aged 60 or older), and payments from retirement accounts like 401(k) accounts and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). Only three other states in the United States offer an exemption on retirement income tax!

Pennsylvanians also benefit from sales tax exemptions and property taxes. Items like grocery bills, clothing, pharmaceutical drug costs and residential heating fuel are not subject to sales tax, and the 6% sales tax is among the lowest 20 states in America. In addition, property tax and rent relief can be provided by the Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program. Homeowners and renters aged 65 years or older – and widows(ers) aged 50 years or older – could qualify for these tax rebates.

Why independent living enhances life

Many people think of retirement as a time to truly live life.

You’ve spent years working, caring for children, potentially even caring for your grandchildren and spending your time serving the community. When it comes time to retire, many older adults often want to take some time to do what they love, explore passions and focus on everything they’ve been wanting to do for years.

At an independent living community such as those Diakon offers, we understand this fact, so we provide opportunities and amenities to enable residents to have the freedom to do as they please, every day.

Focus on hobbies and passions—because of the freedom you’ll have!

Our independent living lifestyle allows residents to be as busy, as relaxed and as adventurous as they wish. Click here for just a few of the ways we ensure our residents have more time to focus on their interests and hobbies.

The true costs of homeownership …

We recently held several events focused on de-cluttering your home.

It’s amazing how much stuff we can accumulate over the years so de-cluttering can be important, particularly as people age.

At the same time, some of that “stuff” often is what may make a home special to us. It makes the home “ours.”

According to industry data, nine out of 10 adults—and not just older adults—say they want to remain in their homes as they age. Typically, they want to stay close to family and friends, are satisfied with their current home and find comfort in their community.

Finances come into play, too. After having lived in a family home for decades, many older adults are comfortably mortgage-free and have no desire to go back to paying one. Living in a home you already own is much more affordable—right!

Maybe. But maybe not.

Certainly, when you start looking at the costs of senior living communities—particularly Continuing Care Retirement Communities, sometimes called CCRCs—the price tag can make you pause. Not only is there a monthly charge, but CCRCs also have an entrance fee that must be paid to become a resident.

However, after you review those initial figures, you may be surprised—and a little shocked—at how affordable a CCRC can be when compared to traditional homeownership. Let’s use an example.

Retired for several years, Peggy and John are in their mid-70s and have owned their current family home for more than 25 years. The home is paid off. However, they’ve been thinking about the future and wondering whether staying in their current home is the right choice.

Click HERE to read more about the true costs of home ownership and how that can compare to a CCRC….

Five exercises to improve balance and mobility

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many older adults have been staying at home and communicating with family members via electronic means.

That’s certainly a good way to stay safe. But changes in activity levels may mean those same older adults are concerned about losing independence through a fall, which not only can result in serious injury, but also lessen mobility and rob seniors of the things they most enjoy.

While there are numerous steps one can take, including having a healthy diet, being especially careful and increasing activity levels, one of the most important actions is to adopt an exercise routine that enhances balance and mobility.

Although it can be tempting to jump right into a new exercise program, please keep a few things in mind:

Exploring senior living and lifestyle options

Although the COVID pandemic still occupies the news, older adults continue to explore living and lifestyle options.

And when it comes time for retirement, experience shows they seek a lifestyle that allows them to sit back, relax, live life as they please and enjoy peace of mind. Often, that peace of mind comes from selecting senior living communities that offer health-care services on-site.

These are just some of the reasons older adults choose to live where services are on campus and always available:

•    With a range of services, the community can meet your needs and preferences for years to come, especially if those needs change.

Click here to read more….

Personal care: A blend of support and independence

Several Diakon Senior Living Services staff members recently discussed the fact most people call what we offer in our personal care communities assisted living.

Because of varying licensures in Pennsylvania (Maryland is different—what we offer there is called assisted living), what Diakon’s senior living communities provide is technically called personal care.

Yet the term simply means we are providing assistance to people with the activities of daily living.

As we grow older, there may come a time it becomes harder to live on our own, yet we still want an independent lifestyle.

Personal care is helpful when it’s not possible for us to remain in our own homes any longer. Personal care allows people to continue to enjoy an active lifestyle, programs, activities, social opportunities—along with daily care.

People who receive personal care typically live the same lifestyle as before, except with the benefit of a little added care when it’s needed.

Click here to learn how personal care can help with daily tasks.

Five tips for choosing the perfect active retirement community

In my career in sales of senior living accommodations, I’ve found that one of two things happens when older adults begin their journey to retirement communities.

They either know exactly what they want and need … or …

They’re overwhelmed by the abundance of available options.

That second situation is not surprising: There are many things to consider, from services and amenities to programming and opportunities for exploration and learning.

My goal is to not let the search for the perfect senior living community become a challenge, so here are five brief tips that can help you or your loved one choose the right community.

Before you begin, however, I always advise making a list of your personal wants, needs and desires. After that list is complete, search for senior living communities both near you and a little farther away (but see the caution below about family and friends). Don’t write off a community just because it’s a little farther than you thought you’d like—it might just be the perfect community for you.

Plus, be sure to schedule tours, check items off your list and try to picture what your life would look like there. Here are my personal suggestions for building your list:

1.    Consider the environment. Do you thrive in the city, where there are plenty of shows to attend, musical performances to enjoy and shopping and dining opportunities? Or do you prefer the laid-back countryside full of peaceful walking trails, horseback riding and nature? In either case, be sure to tour communities that fit your preferences. If you’re open to a good mix of both, you may find communities that offer the best of both worlds. But never settle for a lifestyle that’s less than what you want.

To read more suggestion, please click here.

The power of community

I recently heard someone speak about the importance of community. I was intrigued by an unusual experience he cited, called the Roseto effect.

According to UnimedLiving.com, “In 1964 a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined a population of recent Italian immigrants in Roseto, a small town in the state of Pennsylvania. The study was instigated because the town doctor was completely baffled by the Rosetans’ near immunity to heart disease. He reported his observations” and an extensive study was conducted, comparing health statistics in the community to those of neighboring towns.

In fact, from 1954 to 1961, Roseto had nearly no heart attacks within the population of men 55 to 64, normally a high-risk group, and men older than 65 had a death rate of 1%, while nationally the average was 2%, despite other behaviors (such as smoking) considered unhealthy and sometimes-hazardous working conditions.

The local physician attributed the lower heart-disease rate to lower stress. Researchers suggested “the quality of family relationships and the social milieu may be pertinent to the occurrence of or protection against death from myocardial infarction.” (The Huffington Post also writes about it here in more detail.)

Interestingly, as social structures changed and the community grew less tight-knit, heart-disease rates rose to be comparable to the rest of the country.

There are certainly no guarantees that living in a close-knit community will protect you against heart disease but, at least for me, the Roseto effect makes sense.

When we live in healthy communities, assisting one another and enjoying life together, it just makes sense that stress levels are lower. With stress reportedly one factor in heart disease, it seems logical to associate life in close community with others to taking at least one step closer to physical, emotional and spiritual health.

Creating that type of community lies at the heart of what senior living services providers such as Diakon do.

The very design of our senior living communities, the amenities we offer and the events we craft are all designed to engender a sense of community not only among our residents but also between residents and staff members and residents and the general community.

Again, no one can claim creating such community will ensure lowered heart concerns or even decreased stress levels, but it certainly cannot hurt. And when you speak with our residents, many mention the newfound sense of community they have found with us.

By Melissa Kindall
Manager, Social Media and Digital Communications Manager
Corporate Communications & Public Relations

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Senior living … with the emphasis on living!

It’s a concern I often hear.

Life in a senior living community means giving up your independence. Or it means you no longer own your own home. Or it means we’ll be isolated from our friends and family. And on and on.

But nothing could be further from the truth!

And so many people who come to live in a Diakon Senior Living Community later say they held back from making a decision and were suddenly forced to consider the move. They frequently add that they wish they had made the decision long ago, had they known the positive impact our lifestyle can have.

We at Diakon Senior Living Services are happy to debunk such commonly held myths. In fact, many of our residents say that community life opens up new opportunities for better health and wellness, quality of life and a sense of fulfillment they could never experience living on their own!

From greater independence to security for the future, the benefits can be life-changing:

Click here to read more!