ALBANY — Daughters of Sarah Senior Community provides resident-centered care with over 75 years of service. That speaks towards both its experience and adaptability to provide high quality care.
Daughters of Sarah was founded in 1942 to meet the needs of elderly Jewish men and women who needed care and shelter. The first home opened in Troy with 19 beds. Today, Daughters of Sarah welcomes people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds, and provides a continuum of care for seniors including gracious assisted living, transitional/rehabilitation care, and skilled nursing, memory and respite care. Its mission is to enhance quality of life by assuring one’s safety, dignity and respect and fostered independence.
“We provide assisted living care through end-of-life care,” said Ruth Schulman, director of philanthropy and community engagement. Some residents are in our care for a relatively short period of time for transitional/rehabilitation therapy, she added, where patients can rehabilitate after hip surgery or other conditions and safely return home, while others may need additional skilled nursing care.
The Senior Community consists of The Massry Residence (for assisted living) and The Nursing Center. The Massry Residence offers an active lifestyle for seniors who need some assistance with their activities of daily living. The Nursing Center provides short-term and out-patient physical, occupational and speech therapies using state-of-the-art equipment, memory care, and long-term skilled nursing care.
More and more, people are being diagnosed with varying stages of dementia. Recently, Daughters of Sarah has added specialized programs and specially trained staff to further enhance the quality of life for its residents living with dementia. The Buddies Forever dementia communication program teaches staff how to more effectively communicate with residents paying close attention to use of language and key phrases, and body language. Schulman said there are residents that lie within every point of the dementia spectrum. One group, she shared, was recently able to play a game of Bingo for the first time. “That made my eyes well up with tears,” she said.
In addition to providing outstanding 24-hour skilled nursing care, Daughters of Sarah offers respite care to Capital District families in need of some “breathing room” from their caregiving responsibilities.
“We [as family] need to take care of Grandma and Grandpa,” said Schulman. “We get only one Mom and Dad. They took care of us. Now, it’s time to take care of them.”
