Pioneer Place Memory Haven of Tacoma

Pioneer Place is a residential home designed specifically for the care of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of memory loss.

Features of the home include: private or semi-private rooms with a private bathroom in each room; lights that turn on automatically when entering the bathroom; and tastefully executed color schemes employing strong contrast. Strong contrast in the use of color makes it possible for people who suffer from loss of visual acuity to locate doorways as well as toilet and bathing fixtures.

Closets are specifically designed to enhance the resident’s ability to independently dress and complete grooming. All resident rooms have large windows. The home is a secure unit that features both indoor and outdoor secure walking areas.

Our staff is specially selected and trained to provide appropriate care for residents with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Staff members are taught to intervene appropriately when a resident’s behavior or actions are inappropriate. Our care providers are trained in assisting our residents in a calm, slow, and caring way. A licensed nursing staff supervises the care of our residents on a 24 hour a day basis.

Services

At Pioneer Place we follow the “Gentle Care” model, a model of dementia care that supports, rather than adds to, the disabilities and limitations of those with dementia.

We believe our residents can attain a feeling of warmth, security and comfort by being able to continue many of the activities they pursued in their own homes. Our residents enjoy many everyday activities such as: cooking, baking, washing dishes, gardening, folding laundry, dusting, vacuuming, and picking up the mail.

Persons with Alzheimer’s disease have no concept of time. A resident’s days and nights may be reversed. Our program requires our staff to be flexible in meeting the resident’s needs. And because our current world and reality have little or no meaning to our residents, and may even cause them distress, we step out of our world and into theirs. Depending on the situation, we may help them search for a lost child, wait with them for a bus, or help them find their parents.

Always, the goal is to meet the resident in his or her own world. We help him or her comfortably resolve issues. We want to make it possible for him or her to live in peace and dignity. Our programs keep the residents’ minds and bodies active and functioning at their highest possible level.