The following is Part II in a series of V that will highlight extraordinary people and businesses that have made a positive impact on the elderly and the eldercare industry:
Lakeview Ranch Model of Specialized Dementia Care™
After many years of heartache and frustration struggling to find appropriate care for her mother, and after hearing repeatedly by others in the healthcare industry, that the kind of dignified care that she envisioned was not possible due to the expense, Judy Berry, a passionate determined boomer founded Lakeview Ranch Inc.
Lakeview Ranch and the Lakeview Ranch Model of Specialized Dementia Care™ provides expert care focusing on pro-active disease management rather than treatment as a way to reduce or eliminate dementia related aggressive behavior. By using high staffing ratios, ongoing specialized training, mentoring and support of staff in addition to round-the-clock RN coverage, the quality of life for the individual and their family is enhanced while actually reducing the cost of care. Residents are treated with compassion, their feelings are validated continuously, they are provided choices, and then assisted by loving staff to take their final journey with dignity.
This remarkable woman left behind a successful sales career, and at 55 used her life savings to open the first of two rural residential homes in Minnesota. Today 80 highly skilled dementia care workers oversee resident’s emotional, spiritual and physical needs. Their primary focus is to keep each individual safe and provide love, dignity and choice on a daily basis.
Lakeview Ranch located in Darwin MN, specializes in caring for the hard to place population of elderly suffering with Alzheimer’s disease and the challenging aggressive behavior that is often the hallmark of dementia related diseases. Many of these folks, have come from a life of repeated discharges from other long term care facilities and dementia units, have been subjected to repeated stays in geriatric behavioral or psychiatric units. Almost all are overmedicated causing untold trauma and stress for these elderly and their families.
Since 2000, Judy Berry has raised scholarship funds through the Dementia Care Foundation a Minnesota 501c3, that she started to provide scholarship funding to help defray the cost of care so ALL persons regardless of financial ability, have Equal Access to Lakeview Ranch and their specialized model of care.
To learn more about this extraordinary non-profit organization, or to make a donation, please visit http://www.dementiacarefoundation.org.
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