Loving our furry friends makes us healthier.

For National Dog Day on August 26, we honor our four-legged friends and their amazing contributions. They calm and comfort, save lives, help those with disabilities and serve in the line of duty alongside law enforcement and military personnel.

It’s fitting that cat lovers have their day, too, with National Cat Day on October 29. There are few things that can soothe a stressful day than petting a purring cat or laughing at a mischievous kitten. It’s what makes looking for a pet-friendly senior living community so important.

Taking care of a cat or dog can provide a sense of purpose and create much-needed structure and routine to our days, especially as we age. As retirement — or the pandemic for that matter — keeps us closer to home, a pet companion’s unconditional love and loyalty can stand in for family and friends. Just knowing there’s someone at home who needs you and is happy to see you can feel reassuring and rewarding.

Along with love and companionship, pets offer a variety of benefits for seniors.

Whether you love a cuddly cat or a plush pooch, caring for a furry friend could be good for your health*, according to scientists. It’s possible that a well-matched pet can help:

  • Decrease stress and anxiety
  • Decrease blood pressure
  • Decrease loneliness
  • Increase exercise and outdoor activity (dogs)
  • Decrease cholesterol levels (dogs)
  • Increase socialization (dogs)
  • Improve sleep
  • Improve self-esteem

*According to the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Making a move? Look for pet-friendly senior living communities in Phoenix, AZ.

If you’re looking to make a move with your favorite canine or feline, it’s important to verify that the residence, immediate neighborhood and broader community are all pet-friendly.

  • What are the rules and limitations regarding pets?
  • Does the apartment, condo or patio home have room for you and your pet to move?
  • Do you have easy access to the outdoors for your dog to exercise?
  • Can you easily take your dog for an extended walk or run?
  • Is it a safe area at night?
  • Is there a fenced-in dog park?
  • Are there pet waste stations?
  • Are there any organized pet-friendly activities?
  • Is there assistance available to care for your pet while you’re away or receiving medical care?

At Beatitudes Campus, your four-legged friend is most welcome. You’ll find doggie treats in every building, multiple dog parks with pet waste stations and paved walking areas throughout our campus — all within a gated, secure community monitored by staff 24/7. Our Beatitudes at Home program offers a variety of helpful services, including pet care.

Contact Beatitudes Campus in Phoenix, AZ

For more about Beatitudes Campus and our pet-friendly services and amenities, call us today at 602.883.1358 or send us a note using the form below.

It seems healthy aging is a popular topic these days for people of every generation. Perhaps it’s because September is Healthy Aging Month or maybe because research shows how exercise and healthy eating now can have profound effects on our health tomorrow.

We know from science that there are many other dimensions of good health. At Beatitudes Campus, we take healthy aging seriously. We use a holistic approach to health and wellness that encompasses mental, physical, spiritual and emotional well-being. In fact, we live by a fundamental philosophy that celebrates and supports healthy aging in all ways.

Leroy Calbom, who lives at Beatitudes Campus with his wife, Rita, described living at Beatitudes Campus this way, “It’s an ideal place to live with minimal demands and optimum opportunities, to respect diversity and celebrate the inclusiveness of being together as a family.”

Through our Success Matters program, you have access to a wide variety of services and resources that make life easier and enhance your overall well-being as you age. Perhaps you have questions about medical paperwork, need more information about Medicare coverage, want to coordinate transportation or have groceries delivered, find a support group or something else entirely, our experts can help.

Practicing healthy aging can help improve the quality of your life going forward. If you’re interested, read on to see how our community promotes healthy aging and independent living in your senior years.

Healthy Aging Opportunities at Beatitudes Campus

  • Be Social — At Beatitudes Campus, you’ll discover incredibly welcoming and friendly residents in a casual atmosphere that feels like family.
  • Try Something New — In our community, residents coordinate and direct campus programs. With more than 100 activities, you’re sure to find something you enjoy. If you don’t see what you’re interested in, you can help start a club or activity or suggest one to the community’s life enrichment team.
  • Be A Part of the Neighborhood —Beatitudes Campus offers a thriving community on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood. With less time spent maintaining a home, you can truly enjoy the community you live in.
  • Stay Curious — Learning offers enormous benefits as we age. From the beginning, our senior living community has embraced the pursuit of knowledge. With our Lifelong Learners program, it’s easy to stretch your imagination, feed your curiosity and learn new things.
  • Be Proactive and Keep Moving — Take advantage of the fitness center, pool, walking paths and other Beatitudes Campus amenities to stay active and in control of your health.

More Resources on Healthy Aging

To learn more about how Beatitudes Campus’ services and amenities enhance wellness later in life, check out our blog on senior health and fitness or this blog on how physical activity benefits older adults. You’ll also find great tips for adding healthy habits to your everyday life. (Tips like sharing meals with others to breaking a familiar routine.)

If you love animals, you’re sure to read our blog on how pets can be good for your health as you age. It also includes details about how Beatitudes Campus is a pet-friendly senior living community. We want both you and your furry friends to feel welcome.

We invite you to come for a visit and see our holistic approach to healthy aging in person. Schedule a time to join us on campus and learn about our community. Call us at 602.833.1358 or send us a note using the form below.

It’s hard enough—whether it’s by necessity or for convenience—to make a relocation decision for yourself or a loved one. Emotions run high. The need might be urgent. You searched for a nursing home, but aren’t sure what you found? The language of senior living can feel complicated.

And then you encounter the big question: What exactly are you looking for? Independent living or assisted living? A retirement home, nursing home, or senior apartments? Or is a CCRC what you need? (And what is a CCRC?) I see the term “Life Plan Community” used. Is that the same as a CCRC?

We can help sort this out, providing perspective on the language of senior living that helps you know what the service and care levels are—and feel more confident about your search, too.

Independent Living

For those 62 and older—or in some communities, 55+—independent living is a lifestyle setting that provides comfortable senior apartments or other kinds of residences in which seniors can pursue daily life as they wish. It’s the freedom to maintain your current lifestyle but enhanced by a host of services and amenities.

Independent living residents have few, if any, health conditions that limit their independence. By choosing a community over the continuing burdens of homeownership, they gain the benefits of the community’s programs, activities, dining, and social milieu. Independent living is not considered a level of care because residents don’t require care. But support and kindness are invariably found in abundance.

That’s why it’s common for new independent living residents to claim they wish they’d made the move sooner.

Assisted Living

With a comfortable residence designed to help less-than-fully-independent seniors live as independently as possible, residents get a helping hand with daily life. You may hear about the ADLs, the Activities of Daily Living. Assisted living customizes care to a resident’s needs and how much assistance they need with the ADLs:

  • Personal hygiene. Bathing/showering, grooming, and oral care.
  • Dressing. Making appropriate clothing decisions; dressing and undressing.
  • Eating.
  • Maintaining continence. Using the restroom; hygiene.
  • Transferring/Mobility. Being able to stand from a sitting position; getting in and out of bed; walking independently between locations.

A second set of actions—the IADLs, or Instrumental Activities of Daily Living—are functions that aren’t required daily but can also demonstrate the continuing or diminishing capabilities of a senior. IADLs are:

  • Basic communication skills (includes phone and email).
  • Transportation (driving, arranging rides, or using public transportation).
  • Meal preparation.
  • Shopping.
  • Housework.
  • Managing medications.
  • Managing personal finances.

An assisted living community will assess new residents’ abilities relative to all these daily living activities and create individualized plans for helping each resident succeed. You can also expect assisted living services to adapt to a wide range of health care needs that might change over time, from minor to more acute.

Long-Term Care 

Sometimes known as skilled nursing, long-term skilled care, or a nursing home, the care setting is residential and staffed with RNs and a variety of other professionals. Long-term care provides for those who have a chronic illness.

In more recent times, the term “nursing home” has fallen out of favor. This is a reflection of how hospitality and activity programs are integrated with long-term care on campuses that include other levels of care—and often independent living, too.

Short-Term Care 

Also called short-term rehabilitation or simply rehabilitation, these specialized therapies—speech, physical, and vocational—address the needs of those recovering after surgery, accident, or illness. Short-term care is often found within the long-term care setting, where suitable residences, medical professionals, and equipment are readily available.

Short-term care is often hard work for the resident/patient and is, therefore, made as comfortable as possible. The objective will be to speed up the recovery process while ensuring further rehab won’t be needed after discharge.

CCRC

Short for Continuing Care Retirement Community, which has lately been simplified to “Life Plan” community, the CCRC is the flagship among senior living or retirement communities. In addition to independent living, a CCRC also offers a continuum of care services, which may include assisted living, a memory care program, long-term care, and short-term care.

Often, those who move into a CCRC’s independent living can have access to discounts on levels of care, making this an attractive plan for life —or “Life Plan.” Residents and their families know that if a resident ever needs care, it will be provided in a known setting by those who’ve already established their compassion and trustworthiness.

Life Care

Some communities offer a contract that promises to deliver independent living residents any level of care needed for about the same rate as independent living. The rates for assisted living, memory care, and long-term care are usually higher when those care levels are entered directly. But with Life Care, independent living residents will pay less for those levels of care.

Terms That Misrepresent

You might also encounter such terms as elderly, frail, senior citizen, the aged, or retiree. You won’t hear these from us, however, because these are words that marginalize, and seniors routinely rate them poor choices for their age group. Their preferences—and ours—include “seniors,” “older adults” and “older people.”

Finally, you’ll sometimes hear “facility”—for example, assisted living facility or nursing facility. We don’t use “facility” because it’s institutional-sounding and, therefore, dehumanizing. We’re the opposite of dehumanizing. In fact, Beatitudes Campus and other senior living communities are, by vision, mission, and design, humanizing.

We Stand Behind Our Words

For generations, families in and beyond Phoenix have turned to Beatitudes Campus for senior living. The region’s first community of its kind, we are today a true Phoenix original. We’ve served the region longer, with more integrity and more success than any other senior living community.

Over the years, we’ve helped hundreds of families find the right answers to their senior living questions and needs. When you’re searching, we can help you, too. Call us at (602) 883-1358 or contact us online.

Although they’re popular among older adults, senior living rental options are rarely offered in full-service retirement communities. Typically, rental apartments are clustered together in a neighborhood where management takes care of maintenance and provides a few basic amenities. Residents pay à la carte for everything else. What are the benefits of renting at Beatitudes Campus?

At Beatitudes Campus, you can choose from a wide variety of residential options, including our rental Plaza Apartments—one of the most flexible and affordable options in full-service independent living in all of Phoenix and the surrounding area.

Flexibility, Affordability

Choosing a rental Plaza Apartment at Beatitudes Campus offers the best of all worlds. You get the flexibility of affordable and predictable month-to-month renting while our staff takes care of everything, making life at Beatitudes Campus truly maintenance-free. You never have to worry about changing a light bulb, fixing a faucet or mowing the lawn ever again.

An Entire Community Of Services & Amenities

One of the very best aspects of living at Beatitudes Campus, regardless of which residential option you choose, is the ability to enjoy the conveniences, amenities and lifestyle of our full-service senior living community.

Just beyond your front door, you have full, unlimited access to Beatitudes Campus’ services, amenities and activities, including social events, lifelong learning classes, recreational programs, fitness classes and more.

At Beatitudes Campus, you enjoy a sense of security, too, knowing you’ve planned ahead for the future you want. Part of preparing for tomorrow means knowing where you’ll receive care if you ever need it.

As a resident of Beatitudes Campus, you’ll have access to onsite health services should you ever need them, from an outpatient clinic for primary care to rehabilitative therapies,skilled nursing care and memory support. We even offer in-home care and support. You or your health insurance only pay for the health care services you need, when you need them.

Plaza Apartments Feature:

  • Flexible month-to-month rental, no lease required
  • Choice of studio, one- and two-bedroom floor plans
  • Recently updated finishes and common spaces
  • Access to all Campus amenities and activities
  • Pay-as-you-need-it onsite healthcare available at market rate

Your Monthly Rent Includes:

Now is a great time to consider a Plaza Apartment. It’s a fantastic senior living rental option right here in Phoenix in an area you know and love. We recently gave the Plaza Apartment lounges a whole new look.

We know that with so many choices, deciding which senior living option is right for you can be daunting. At Beatitudes Campus, we want to be a trusted resource to help you navigate your choices. To learn more about planning for your future, request a free retirement planning guide.

Visit our video gallery and follow us on Facebook to see more about life at Beatitudes Campus.

Let’s Talk About It!

Curious if a senior living rental option at Beatitudes Campus is the perfect match for your future? Call us today at (602) 883-1358 or send us a note using the form below. We’d love to welcome you to Campus for a tour and are happy to answer all of your questions.

If you’ve been wondering whether a move to a senior living community is the right thing, you’ll be pleasantly reassured to hear that life at Beatitudes Campus comes with fewer risks and many more rewards. We’ve reimagined senior living to enhance everyday life, even in a pandemic.

Healthy All Year Long

As experts in healthcare, senior living communities understand how to safeguard your health and well-being. The staff, including ours, follows strict protocols for safety and cleanliness, and most communities have the capabilities and resources to respond quickly and efficiently to any issues.

At well-planned communities like Beatitudes Campus, older adults are healthier year-round. Opportunities to take fitness classes, swim, dance, walk, garden, paint, learn a language, socialize, volunteer and participate in an array of activities and programs help keep bodies and minds sharp. Regardless of your age, being healthy is the best defense against any illness, especially colds and flus.

“I love the life here,” said Anita Shehi, who moved to Beatitudes Campus in 2019. “For me, there’s a sense of renewed purpose being active in the community, making new friends, volunteering, taking classes and getting back into learning.”

Social Distancing Without Social Isolation

Social distancing to stay safe has affected everyone. Not being able to enjoy the familiar routines of our favorite activities or the simple social interactions that come from dining out or gathering for meals has taken a profound toll on our cognitive abilities and mental and emotional well-being, not the least of which our healthy eating habits and waistlines. It’s been especially difficult for older adults who may be retired and live in one- or two-person households.

Building on years of experience developing social, recreational and educational opportunities, senior living communities are working hard to help residents stay active and connected. At Beatitudes Campus, staff and resident volunteers work together to create enjoyable virtual activities, physically distanced indoor festivities and carefully planned outdoor events that keep people engaged and moving.

As for eating healthy, senior communities make it easy to enjoy a variety of delicious and nutritious meals at on-campus restaurants. Beatitudes Campus, for example, has several restaurants, from a bistro and coffee bar to a steakhouse and grille to a gourmet dining room. Throughout the pandemic, the community’s staff has delivered made-to-order restaurant meals, groceries and essentials to residents’ homes.

“There’s nowhere we’d rather be than right here, especially now. We feel safer and more secure at Beatitudes. The staff handles everything,” said Dan and Marge O’Horo, who moved to Beatitudes Campus in 2016. “They’ve worked really hard to keep life fun and engaging as we stay home to stay safe.”

Access to Healthcare and Help at Home

In addition to enjoyable activities and convenient services, many senior living communities offer access to onsite healthcare, making it easier to treat illnesses and chronic conditions so they don’t escalate to a bigger issue. At Beatitudes Campus, you’ll find onsite health services, from certified 24/7 security response and an outpatient clinic for primary care and podiatry services to rehabilitative therapies and specialized care such as skilled nursing care and memory support.

While we’ve seen on the news how many people across the country have to wait in line for care, at Beatitudes Campus, you can make an appointment for a doctor’s visit, a vaccination or physical therapy session, for example. If you’re not feeling well enough to come in, we’ll send medical staff to your home so you never have to go without care. As we’ve mentioned before, Beatitudes Campus was part of the early vaccine rollout and continues to help get vaccines to those who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.

Read More: Plan Now, Be Prepared For Tomorrow

Beyond in-home care, Beatitudes Campus also offers in-home support and assistance with a variety of tasks, including meal prep, pet care, errands, laundry, medication reminders and more — all helpful services whether there’s a pandemic or not.

“While we’re looking forward to getting back to our normal routine, we’re extremely grateful to be here during this difficult time. We can’t imagine trying to face this ourselves,” said Robert Andrews and Cynthia Cielle, who moved to Beatitudes Campus in 2019. “When deciding where to move, it was important to us to feel completely safe. We didn’t realize how very important that decision would become.”

Visit our video gallery and follow us on Facebook to see more about life at Beatitudes Campus.

Let’s talk about it!

Want to experience Beatitudes Campus for yourself, call us today at 602.883.1358 or send us a note using the form below.

The holidays at Beatitudes Campus are a magical time of year, especially traditional holiday celebrations. Twinkling lights create spectacular displays. Resident musicians play festive music. Carolers sing. Secret Santas leave gifts. The faithful attend special services. Residents lead charitable events to help those in need. And prior to the pandemic, residents and their guests would mix and mingle, dine, and dance at holiday and New Year’s Eve parties. 

From November through early January, it’s truly a wonderful time of year at Beatitudes Campus. It’s all made possible by the hard work and dedication of residents and staff. The maintenance teams spend days trimming trees and decorating buildings with holiday décor and thousands of lights.

Traditionally, throughout the community, you’ll see residents spearheading dozens of special events, programs, and activities that celebrate joy and friendship, faith and generosity. You can jump in and help or simply pick your favorites and enjoy.

If you love a slice of chocolatey bûche de noël, caramel apple pie, or red velvet cake, why spend all day in the kitchen? The Campus restaurant culinary staff and pastry chefs create delicious and decadent holiday treats all season long.  

Different But Just As Joyful In A Pandemic

While this year’s holiday season is definitely different and some traditional activities aren’t possible, the staff and residents at Beatitudes Campus are finding happy and safe ways to enjoy the holiday spirit.

“Everyone is pulling together to make this the safest possible celebration even though we cannot get together with our families and friends like we usually do,” said Beatitudes Campus resident Cynthia Cielle. 

Instead of a big Christmas dinner held on campus, residents enjoyed a holiday meal delivered to their door. Live choirs and concerts, strolling carolers and musicians gave way to broadcasted performances. Instead of holiday parties, small but special moments brought smiles.

“This year, we’re doing little pop-ups like handing out hot cocoa as residents walk by and giving gift bags to those who live in assisted living and the health center. The staff created a Christmas parade with floats. We took videos to broadcast on the in-house TV channel. To keep everyone’s spirits lifted, the Spiritual Life department created a variety of programs held mostly on the closed-circuit TV channel,” continued Cielle. 

Hopefully, soon, we’ll be able to get back to big, boisterous celebrations, beautiful choirs, and bustling volunteer efforts. In the meantime, most residents feel grateful that Beatitudes Campus is ensuring life goes on even in a pandemic. 

Follow us on Facebook to discover how Beatitudes Campus sets a safe and festive backdrop for your spring, summer, and winter holiday traditions and to see more stories from our campus.

Let’s Talk About It!

Want to experience Beatitudes Campus for yourself, call us today at (602) 883-1358 or submit a form online.