BONITA SPRINGS, Fla., August 25, 2020 (Source: Newswire.com) – Discovery Senior Living has announced the nationwide launch of ”Near & Dear—Bringing Families Together,” a program designed and developed by the company to allow safe, up close and personal visitation between assisted living and memory care residents and their families in purpose-planned, outdoor meeting spaces.
Family members can arrange a day and time to meet in the community’s private, outdoor family connection space, where enhanced safety protocols, sanitation guidelines and protective supplies including masks and hand sanitizer will be available, and temperature checks will take place. The new program will require prospective visitors to take a “curbside,” rapid COVID-19 test, which will be conducted free of charge by the community.
Made possible by Discovery Senior Living’s comprehensive, nationwide COVID-19 testing capabilities, the program will help open up new options for safe, outside visitation, as well as allow for more closeness and intimacy. Family members will finally be able to physically touch and embrace their loved ones following months of virus-mandated separation. With its inception, Discovery Senior Living becomes one of the first senior living providers in the nation to successfully reinstate this type of visitation at its communities.
Each visitation area will also have available snacks and refreshments, as well as outdoor fans and air conditioning and/or heaters for all-season comfort. The spaces will be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized before and after each visit in accordance with Discovery Senior Living’s stringent safety and sanitary protocols.
“Operators in seniors housing have been working on developing solutions to satisfy resident and customer needs by creating spaces where they can meet and be socially distanced, but we’ve taken it a step further,” said Richard J. Hutchinson, CEO of Discovery Senior Living. “FaceTime and socially distanced visits are better than not having any interactions, but our program is much more than that. It’s about helping our residents and families to re-experience the feeling of a warm embrace, a kiss on the cheek, and sharing love and laughter up close the way they once could pre-pandemic.”
Hutchinson affirmed that Discovery Senior Living communities will continue allowing face-to-face, distanced visits in restricted counties or states, and will keep offering virtual visits as well. The company is also committed to the continuation of socially distanced activities and events, which have been developed to keep residents active and in regular contact with one another, as well as friends and loved ones living outside their respective communities.
“We look forward to helping orchestrate so many long-awaited reunions between residents and their families,” said Hutchinson. “This program’s value goes beyond virtual visitations and seeing loved ones from a distance; it’s a way to overcome the negative impacts of separation and meaningfully enrich the lives of our residents despite the still-significant threat of COVID-19.”
Discovery Senior Living currently owns and operates a portfolio of 51 communities in 13 states.
About Discovery Senior Living
Discovery Senior Living is a family of companies which includes: Discovery Management Group, Discovery Development Group, Discovery Design Concepts, Discovery Marketing Group, and Discovery At Home, a Medicare-certified home healthcare company. With almost three decades of experience, the award-winning management group has been developing, building, marketing, and operating upscale, luxury senior-living communities across the United States. By integrating the company’s highly innovative and successful “Experiential Living” philosophy across its flourishing portfolio of almost 10,000 existing homes or homes under development, Discovery Senior Living has become a recognized industry leader in creating world-class, resort-style communities.
Media Inquiries:
Heidi Miller, Vice President of Marketing
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