Options expanding for freedom, lifetime care

The first seven cottages are occupied in a new community that provides both freedom and lifetime care in Chesterfield County.

Springdale at Lucy Corr Village is an addition to a fast-growing trend for serving aging baby boomers.

The construction of 18 cottages and 52 apartments -- to be completed by midsummer -- -- is turning a venerable public nursing home and assisted-living facility into a continuing-care retirement community.

The new dwellings will house retired seniors who want to live independently in a community where additional care is assured when they need it.

"The whole industry is going to more of a home-based environment," said Leigh W. Robbins, executive director of Lucy Corr Village, a nonprofit community operated near Chesterfield Courthouse by a county-appointed commission.

Throughout the Richmond region, retiring seniors and their families have many options for care. There are retirement communities with every level of care available in a single campus, as at Springdale, and there are stand-alone nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.

And plenty of providers offer home-based services to avoid institutional care, through both Medicaid and private pay.

"In essence, it becomes assisted living at home or nursing care at home," said Marcia Tetterton, executive director of the Virginia Association of Home Care and Hospice, which has almost 250 member agencies around the state.

The continuing-care retirement community embraces a little of everything. Traditionally, these complexes guarantee care through a lifetime contract.

"A true continuing care retirement community is kind of an insurance product coupled with a campus," said Hobart M. Harvey, vice president of financial services at the Virginia Health Care Association, which represents about 240 nursing and 50 assisted-living facilities around the state.

However, some communities offer the choice of a life contract or a monthly fee for service. Springdale, with plans for eventually building 70 cottages, offers only fee for service, as well as participation in the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs.

"We do have a public mission," Robbins said.

Some longstanding retirement communities have expanded their options over the years. Westminster Canterbury Richmond completed a three-year project in 2006 that added 188 independent-living apartments and 22 cottages at its complex on Westbrook Avenue.

The new units more than tripled the average living space of the studio apartments in Westminster Canterbury's main building, constructed in 1975, as the organization responded to consumer demand for larger living areas and more social amenities. The community also greatly expanded the number of assisted-living apartments it offers while doubling their size.

"Residents today are looking for a lifestyle," said Donald D. Lecky, president and chief executive officer of Westminster Canterbury Richmond.

Expanded amenities include a new facility for its child-development center and a performing arts theater that is heavily used. "We have folks in our health-care unit who have not missed a performance," Lecky said.

The Richmond Home for Ladies, begun by the Presbyterian and Methodist churches in 1882, moved in 2001 from its longtime home in the city's Fan District to 70 acres in Hanover County that became Covenant Woods, a continuing-care retirement community.

Virginia United Methodist Homes Inc. owns The Hermitage, a 60-year-old community on Westwood Avenue in North Side, and Cedarfield, a 12-year-old community in western Henrico County. Cedarfield is bigger and caters to a slightly younger, more active population than its counterpart in the city.

As executive director of the Virginia Association of Non-Profit Homes for the Aging, Sandra Levin represents 100 nonprofit providers with 22,000 residents across Virginia.

"There are a lot of choices out there," she said.

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or .