KALONA

Pleasantview has a problem.

More than one, actually.

If you have friends or family members living in the community, you may have noticed it. You call, wanting to schedule a visit, and they tell you, “Nope, I’m busy,” or “I’m going to an activity, you’ll have to come later.”

So, problem one: residents enjoying campus life so much, they snub loved ones.

Problem two: once folks move into the Pleasantview community, they have no desire to leave.

Now, this second problem can be more serious. Residents’ needs may change as they age. They may be perfectly happy in Independent Living when they move in, but eventually Assisted Living may come to suit them better, or perhaps they’ll need the specialized services of Memory Care or Nursing Care. Residents would like to continue living on the Pleasantview Campus as their lives evolve.

Now they can.

On Nov. 1, Pleasantview opened their new Memory Care unit, finally filling a void in their continuum of care that had long been noted but not resolved. Now seniors have access to all levels of care, from independent living to long-term nursing.

“The goal is to get independent people here into our townhouses, and then as they need more care, we would hopefully have a space for them to move through and stay at Pleasantview forever if they want to,” marketing director Mikayla Fisher says.

The 16-bed Memory Care wing is designed for those with dementia; each resident has their own room, and the environment is low stimulus, quiet, and easily walkable. The open, modern space is all on the ground floor, making for easy accessibility. There are also activities for residents to engage in, and even an activity kitchen, “so if they get their times mixed up, and it’s two in the morning and they want to bake cookies, they can do that, with the help of staff,” Fisher says.

Thirteen of the Memory Care rooms have already been filled with both existing Pleasantview residents and people from the community.

Pleasantview’s Assisted Living apartments opened in September, bridging a gap in lifestyle options on the campus.

“Even in the time I’ve been here, we’d have people who were in Independent Living who desperately wanted to go to Assisted Living, but we didn’t have that step,” Fisher says. “They had to move off campus, which was heartbreaking. Now, it’s been really fun to see some of them transition over there and just thrive in the Assisted Living environment. There’s been a lot of fun.”

One of those fun things both Assisted and Independent Living residents enjoyed this fall was an outing to Lake Belva Deer, where they enjoyed walking out to the lake, eating lunch al fresco under the pavilion, and breathing plenty of fresh autumn air.

While Pleasantview has seen significant improvements these last months, construction work that began in November 2021 continues with renovation of the old Friendship Center, which will become a new Therapy Center, providing physical and occupational therapy services. Connected to the Therapy Center will be six Medicare suites for post-acute care.

In the main lobby, a bistro is being added that will be open to residents, visitors, and family members. The dining room is moving to a more central location, along with the kitchen; the east wing is being reworked to include a three-chair salon and computer/library area.

The project is expected to be completed by late 2024/early 2025.

Life at Pleasantview is good. So good, in fact, that there is a waiting list for would-be residents. One of the things that makes it good, according to Fisher, is “the sense of community. People are pretty loyal to Kalona, but we get people from outside of Kalona too, and we have really great care. I think our nursing facility stands out from a lot of other nursing facilities, and people recognize that.”

“We are a five-star facility,” Larry Swartzendruber, director of advancement, adds. “Our core values stress the idea of quality, integrity, community, and kindness. Our staff adhere to those principles.”

“People truly care for the residents, which is really fun to see,” Fisher says.

Swartzendruber’s parents lived at Pleasantview before they passed, and he had the experience of visiting them before the community became his employer. He was able to observe firsthand the respect and kindness with which residents were treated.

“We’ve got a lot of quality people working here,” he says.

Once their current project is complete, Pleasantview doesn’t anticipate resting on their laurels.

“We have land [connected to the campus] so that we can expand,” Swartzendruber hints. “We can move forward.”

Being excited about what Pleasantview has in store for the future? Now that is not a problem.