Willamette Oaks - Lane County Assisted Living & Senior Care Residence

ASSISTED LIVING NEAR YOU

What is Assisted Living? 

Designed to provide all the benefits of an independent lifestyle, assisted living facilities are meant to provide medical and general quality-of-life support to their senior residents. They are often called retirement communities; even though there is no standardized definition of what assisted living is, there are some clear differences between an assisted living facility and, for example, a nursing home. You should think about your needs first, and then find a facility that can accommodate those needs, regardless of what the brand decided to call themselves.

In general, we can see a difference between e two types of facilities: those without on-site medical staff (more independent) and those with the extra support of on-site medical staff (less independent). 

Most active seniors (those who can still be active without assistance) just want their own inner and outer independence, assisted with some quality-of-life amenities. These are pretty basic and transfer the harder and more boring parts of the day to the facility staff. Generally, this includes:

• daily meals, 
• cleaning services, 
• organized wellness & social programs,
• health & medical services by request
• some form of transportation assistance. 

Generally, if you or your loved ones need intensive daily or weekly medical care, what you’d be better off with is not referred to as an assisted living facility but rather a nursing home. The quality of nursing care has gone up significantly over the past couple of decades, so bear in mind that the negative connotations associated with these facilities are mostly a thing of the past. We do understand that bad reputation can last forever, though, so approach your elderly parents carefully with this idea, and make sure they can actually see what it looks like before negative imagination completely blocks them from even considering it as an option.

Does the Willamette Oaks Senior Living Community offer the right assistance for you?

Common assisted living communities’ amenities include meals, housekeeping, transportation, medication assistance, emergency call service, planned activities and around the clock assistance if needed. Willamette Oaks offers all of these assisted living services. Some facilities are designed for people who are less independent and in need of more support. Their service offering typically includes licensed nursing, medication assistance and around-the-clock observation of health status. This type of facility is a step between independent living and a nursing home. People who have serious health issues or are in a state of rapidly declining health are better off with this type of care. At Willamette Oaks we bridge the gap between independent living and assisted living with partner providers such as Right at Home who provide extended services to allow our residents to get the help they need without leaving the comfort and safety.

As the saying goes, one size doesn’t fit all and one community isn’t the right fit for everyone. What is the right level of care for you is a complex question but one we are happy to help you work through it. We honestly want you to live where you receive the maximum benefit and are here to help you make your senior housing decision.

As we age, we tend to put less of an emphasis on fitness and exercise. This is often due to decreased caloric needs, a decline in mobility, or other health concerns. It may not seem to be important to exercise during retirement because it is often viewed as a time to relax and rest, but this could not be further from the truth. 

Eating healthy, well-balanced meals and maintaining a healthy level of physical activity are essential throughout our lives, but they become even more important in our senior years. By taking charge of your health and well-being, you can better enjoy your retirement and you will be able to maintain your independence. 

Regular exercise also helps improve the body's immune system which helps prevent and fend off cold and flu viruses. It can also help reduce the chances of developing chronic health conditions - both physical and mental - such as Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, depression, anxiety, and many more. 

The benefits of exercising regularly are clear, but it can be difficult to know how to start or how to maintain motivation. This is one of the many ways that being a part of a senior living community can help! We help to make exercise convenient, fun, engaging, and structured to help our residents learn to enjoy exercise. We want to help our residents live healthy, happy, active lives so that they can live life to the fullest.  

Exercise, it’s for more than just your body.

In addition to the physical benefits that exercise and a healthy diet provide, there is also significant evidence that staying physically active in your youth and throughout your life helps older adults have healthier brains. Regular exercise has been shown to lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease as it helps to preserve cognitive function. 

This occurs because learning new things and challenging yourself forces your brain to create new connections and causes it to actively form new pathways. By actively engaging in new tasks, such as exercising or learning new hobbies, your memory and cognitive function will improve. In turn, this helps to keep your brain younger and enhances a person’s sense of well-being and self-worth. 

For many seniors, living in an active retirement community can help them stay active, engaged, and social. Willamette Oaks in Lane County offers many opportunities to engage with fellow residents in structured fitness classes, social events, and other group activities.   

How can living at Willamette Oaks Senior Living Community help you stay active?

Although many people believe that retirement is the time for relaxation, rest, and lowered expectations of excitement and adventure, we believe that nothing could be farther from the truth. We believe in a LifeMinded approach to celebrating retirement. 

With this approach, we encourage our residents to pursue the activities that they love. At Willamette Oaks, the best Lane County assisted living community, we know that each resident is their own unique individual and for this reason, we work with each person to help them create their own personalized activity program. We encourage our residents to try new things while still enjoying the things that they love, all while being more active, engaged, and social. 

Living LifeMinded.

Our Living LifeMinded approach can be broken down into four distinct categories. The first is an emphasis on physical fitness and activity. At Willamette Oaks, we offer several different fitness classes and group activities to help our residents stay healthy, flexible, and engaged. Some of our most popular classes include yoga, Tai-chi, hiking, and dancercise. The classes are always different and engaging to keep your motivation up.

The second category is Brain Fitness. Studies have shown that keeping your brain active and engaged by learning new things, trying new hobbies, and staying socially active in your senior years drastically improves memory and cognitive function. We encourage our residents to keep their minds and bodies active, limber, and engaged.

The third category is Connections. By living in our Willamette Oaks retirement community in Lane County, you will be part of a vibrant and friendly community that will provide you with the opportunity to create new friendships while maintaining and nurturing your longstanding ones. We offer several group activities, structured discussions, and numerous meeting areas for our residents to mingle with each other. Meaningful connections play an essential role in maintaining a healthy mindset, improving mental health, and overall well-being. 

The fourth category is Making a Difference. Through this program, we work with our residents to help them contribute to their community in a meaningful way. Whether that looks like volunteering, creating things for others, or mentoring the younger generations, we fully support and encourage the contributions. Giving back to the community provides a sense of self-worth and happiness, and can help give some seniors meaning when they are feeling down.

We strive to make a difference wherever we can, and we love to see our residents doing the same.

As we age it can become more difficult to maintain our independence, particularly as we begin to struggle with declining mobility, reduced income, and increasing health concerns. Independence is something that we all strive to achieve and maintain throughout our lives, so it is no surprise that seniors are reluctant to leave their homes when they reach retirement age. 

In many cases, however, remaining in a large house that requires a lot of upkeep can cause a significant financial burden on a person. It can also be physically difficult to continue to cook and clean daily, and it can be difficult to regularly go to the grocery store for the things that you need. 

When these circumstances are combined with a lack of reliable transportation due to health concerns or finances, remaining in your own home can become an isolating and mentally draining experience as well. 

These are the situations in which moving to a retirement community or senior living apartments like Willamette Oaks can help. Moving to a retirement community can help seniors be more independent than they would be by staying at home for several reasons. At our Lane County retirement community, you’ll have easier access to transportation, a Chef service and kitchen staff to prepare your meals, a housekeeping service for your apartment, and so much more. 

We know how important independence is, and we want to help you maintain yours for as long as possible. Many of our residents frequently tell us that although they resisted moving in the first place, they now wish that they had moved sooner.

What is an Independent Senior Living Community?

An Independent Senior Living Community is more commonly known as a retirement community, retirement apartment, or senior housing. They are safe, secure, and comfortable residences that only seniors are allowed to move into, and they may be located in a neighborhood, an apartment complex, or sometimes even as a large building. 

One of the main reasons that Independent Living Communities are great for seniors is that they are frequently less expensive than maintaining a home, and the seniors who live in them are able to benefit from several amenities that wouldn’t be otherwise available to them due to expense or logistics. 

Willamette Oaks Senior Living offers several amenities such as transportation, a full-service salon, round-the-clock security, housekeeping, a fitness center, spacious communal areas that our residents can relax and socialize in, and personal assistants for other needs that our residents may have - such as shopping assistance. 

In addition to all of these quality-of-life amenities, Willamette Oaks residents can also take advantage of our Chef-cooked meal services, expansive fitness programs - including yoga, tai-chi, pilates, and more - and our full calendar of curated social events and activities that we know our residents will love. 

Perhaps the best part of living in a retirement community is the fact that although the option to socialize is there, it is not mandatory. Our residents who prefer to keep to themselves will still be able to do all of the things that they enjoy on their own time and terms with the added security that their peers are there if they need them. 

Aging in place.

Although there are numerous benefits to living in a retirement community, perhaps one of the most important is the ability to “age in place”. In a traditional home setting, it quickly becomes more difficult to remain comfortable when we begin to have to use mobility aids, and maneuvering around the house can become troublesome. Oftentimes, family members also begin to worry about leaving older relatives alone in large homes for safety reasons. 

Our assisted living facility in Lane County, like many other Senior Living Communities, is equipped with specifically designed amenities that were designed with seniors in mind. Things such as wider hallways, round-the-clock access to personal assistants and part-time and, in some cases, full-time caregivers, and several easily accessible elevators throughout the community all work together to ensure that our residents remain comfortable for as long as they live here. 

Finally, all of our residents can have peace of mind thanks to the voice-activated call systems that are located in each senior apartment. These call systems do not require using a phone or finding a pull cord - any verbal expression of distress will alert the staff to come to your aid. This system is engaged and available 24/7 to ensure that our residents have access to the emergency services that they may require. 

Together, all of these features serve to help our residents “age in place” so that they can remain comfortable and secure which helps improve mental and emotional states during any necessary periods of rest and recovery.

Is the Willamette Oaks Senior Living Community the right place for you?

No one can make the decision of where to live for you. At Willamette Oaks, we know that every potential resident is unique with their own individual needs and desires. We are proud to be able to offer amenities and services that help make our residents feel more at home, and we are able to provide these services because we are family owned and operated. 

Because we are not a corporation, we are able to listen more closely to our residents' requests, and we are often able to implement new services while improving upon existing ones. Thanks to this cooperation between residents and staff, we are proud to say that we have a strong, healthy, supportive community that looks forward to meeting you! 

We invite you to come to visit our grounds in Eugene, Lane County for yourself to decide if our community is the right fit for you. Stay for a few days in our guest apartments to see where your family and friends will stay when they come to visit you. Eat a few of our Chef-cooked meals in our luxury dining room and participate in a few social activities to get to know some of the residents. We look forward to meeting you and showing you how much difference the right choice of a community can make!

Our bodies change as we age.

As we age, it can become difficult to eat the right amount of food to meet our increased nutritional needs. Although we tend to burn fewer calories as we become more sedentary, our nutritional needs become more nuanced in response. 

Because of this, it becomes even more important to eat healthy, nutrient-dense foods that aren’t high in calories. When we eat foods that are high in fats, sugar, and empty calories it can make us feel sluggish, lethargic, and the lack of nutrients can even affect our moods. 

Unfortunately, a lot of things can get in the way of achieving our nutritional goals. Changes in gastrointestinal conditions, acid reflux, food aversions, and dental concerns can all affect the way that we decide which foods to eat. Other considerations are that it may be lonely for some people to eat alone, it may be difficult to get to the store for groceries, or it may be a troublesome and time-consuming process to cook meals and then have to clean up afterward. 

This is one of the many ways that senior living communities can help. At Willamette Oaks, we have an Executive Chef and a team of trained culinary experts that create delicious, nutrient-dense meals for our residents to enjoy on a daily basis. 

It is our goal to ensure that our residents don’t have to worry about cooking or cleaning if they don’t want to. We provide two chef-crafted meals per day to all of our residents, and we offer a beautiful garden-side dining room for our residents to eat and socialize in. 

What’s on the menu at Willamette Oaks Senior Living Community?

Our meals are designed to not only be delicious and easy to eat but also to be nutrient-dense and full of vitamins. Seniors are commonly deficient in Vitamins A, B, C, D, E, Folic Acid, and Niacin, and while they may commonly take a multi-vitamin to make up the difference, it’s simply not as healthy as eating the foods that provide those vitamins. 

We place an emphasis on offering healthy whole foods for each of our meals, and there is always a full salad bar available full of leafy greens and bright vegetables. On a daily basis, we offer fruits, whole grains, protein-rich foods including eggs, tofu, lean meats, seeds, nuts, and more vegetables and herbs that are grown on-site in our personal garden.  

Additionally, we always take our resident’s meal ideas and preferences into consideration when our meals are being planned. If you have any food allergies or sensitivities, our chef and his staff will ensure that you aren’t served those foods. This flexibility is possible because unlike many other retirement communities we are not owned or operated by a corporation. Instead, we are privately owned and operated and are able to frequently accommodate our residents’ requests.  

Finally, at our Lane County senior community, we believe that meals should not only be nutritional but that they should also be a social experience. For that reason, we not only offer a spacious dining room to eat meals in but our chef and his team also create unique meals for exciting occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. 

We also understand that not everyone is going to want to socialize every day. On the days that our residents aren’t feeling well, they are able to request room service and their meals will be brought directly to them. 

The best part is that all of this is completely included as part of your rent. There are no additional charges or surprise fees because we consider nutritional meals to be an essential part of your health, wellbeing, happiness, and longevity. We look forward to having you as a resident!