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Avalon Place offers 'at home feeling'
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

Staff photo by Barry Halvorson Like one of the family, Avalon Place mascot, Buddy, receives the attentions of, from left, resident K. Melton, Marketing Director Lisa Cokins and Birdie Melton. The rehabilitation and nursing facility prides itself on the level of involvement of both its staff and its residents in various activities, including caring for Buddy.

While the parent companies have come and gone over the years, the restful setting of Avalon Place has remained the same for more than 20 years of operation in Wharton.

"It's always been at this location," said Administrator Angela Parks, BSN, RN, LNFA.

"We've had several families tour other facilities but come back and tell us our location with its pastoral setting of grass and trees and the big front porch gives us a more at home feeling."

And Avalon Place strives to be a home to its patients whether they are short-term or longterm residents. And setting is only half the recovery answer, Parks said.

"What sets us apart from other facilities is that passion our people have for what they do," she said.

"There is no other way to put it other than they feel a calling to help make people's lives more productive and more comfortable."

The full name of the facility, Avalon Place Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, is descriptive of what is offered, Marketing Director Lisa Cokins said.

"We have three general areas of service but the main focus is rehabilitation," she said.

"Avalon Place offers a skilled level of nursing care for people following a hospital stay. We over physical, occupational and speech therapy."

For those short term patients, there are four full-time therapists among the between 90 and 100 employees at Avalon Place. Parks explained most people's impression of rehabilitation is going to a gym for a couple of hours a day.

"We're here for those people leaving the hospital who aren't ready for that kind of intense workout," she said.

"They might need three hour-long sessions in a day rather than one three-hour session. The goal is to help our residential patients regain the level of health and activity they had before something happened and allow them to return home and resume their lives without problems."

The second area of service is providing long-term care.

"Actually, that includes the majority of our patients but it is only because the rehabilitation patients come and go on a regular basis," Cokins said.

"But these residents are no longer capable of living on their own because of the daily level of care they need and we are happy to assist."

The final service area is that of respite care, offering families time to recuperate when service as full-time caregivers to a family member.

"There are times when you need someone to offer temporary care for a loved one," Cokins said. "It might be to take a long planned vacation or just the need to have a break from the day-to-day stress of caring for a loved one in the home."

Regardless of the time a resident is going to be staying, Avalon Place strives to meet not only a person's physical needs but also mental needs by providing a variety of entertainment options.

"Boredom is a big killer for GO_Ad.qxd 3/26/08 2:12 PM people who have been active in their lives," Park said. "So we try to have something for them to do throughout the day and even a couple of evenings a week."

"Dominos and bingo are always popular activities," Cokins added. "But we also have outings for them so they have an opportunity to get away from the same things they see every day. And our Activities Director Janet Kirkpatrick organizes a number of activities as well as bringing in visitors like polka musicians."

In addition to performers, Parks said she encourages families and community volunteers to visit regularly.

"We regard the people staying with us as family," she said. "And an extension of that are their own families. We really like it when they are involved with the residents' lives and really want them to come in to be a part of our family."

And of the 100 or so employees, Parks said a number of them have been at Avalon Place for better than a decade, an almost unheard of level of retention in the industry.

"But that contributes to the quality of care we provide," she said. "The fact that some of our people have been here 15 or 19 years gives us a level of consistency that is good for the residents. They bond with their caregivers and if those faces are familiar it is a comfort to them."

"Our nurses are also well trained in their field," Parks added. "They have to have 20 hours of continuing education credit every two years and we offer additional training on top of that. We get them CPR certification and all are IV certified. We also bring in speakers on a regular basis that offer our staff background information on various kinds of conditions and situations they might have to deal with."

Cokins said that Avalon Place's doors are always open to visitors and tours are always offered to potential residents and families.

For more information, you can visit the facility at 1405 Valhalla

Drive or call 532-1244. Page 1