Providing a home for seniors

Providing a “HOME” for our Seniors

It’s More than Just the Nursing Care

By Dana Olson, Executive Director of Laurel Manor Care Center, Colorado Springs LIVING WELL Magazine

Laurel Manor Care Center is owned and operated by Volunteers of America, a faith based, non-profit organization. We strive to meet all the needs of our residents, not just their physical and health needs. Of course we know that is very important, but to make our facility their home is more of a challenge. None of us want to live in a nursing facility some day, but sometimes life deals us cards that make a nursing facility a necessary alternative to living in our own homes.

We provide activities to stimulate the brain, social services to help deal with life crisis as they happen, financial assistance if applications for Medicaid are necessary, dietary services to meet all nutritional needs and of course spiritual care as per our mission statement—“To Reach and Uplift all People and bring them to the knowledge and service of God.”

One thing we do here at Laurel Manor to try and make things as “homelike” as possible is to have pets in our facility. Many articles have been written about how stimulating animal therapy can be to our seniors. We have a facility dog, “Honey,” that lives here.  Our director of nursing brings her dog, “Maggie,” every day. We also have two facility cats named Midnight and Bombay along with two cats that belong to residents—Bagheera and Bigboy. If a resident comes in to our facility and has difficulty leaving a beloved pet behind, we try to accommodate that pet in our facility. It does not always work, but we try.

Come and learn more about Volunteers of America and Laurel Manor Care Center. You can reach me at 719-473-7780.