WEDNESDAY 27 OCTOBER - California Dreaming!

After starting our tour in Washington, The Evergreen State, and our three day stay in Oregon, The Beaver State, today we entered California, the Golden State. After an hour and a half flight from Portland we arrived at the city of Sacramento, the state capital and location of the Great California Gold Rush in 1848. We arrived to find bright sunshine and a welcome warmer temperature than we have experienced in recent days of about 68 degrees fahrenheit. We met up with our bus and driver Jim and headed off to the town of Davis for our first visit of the day.

Visit 1. University Retirement Community, Davis, California.
The University Retirement Community is Yolo County’s only fully accredited CCRC. The community offers a variety of programmes, services, and amenities that have been designed to help people stay as happy and actively engaged in life as possible in retirement.




The campus offers spacious residential-living accommodations in several styles: main building apartments, garden apartments, and spacious cottages. In addition, the campus offers a full range of on-site health care options to ensure residents can be supported as needs change over time: assisted living, skilled nursing care, and special care.




We were welcomed by Executive Administrator Michael Morris and members of the administration team. After a delicious lunch and a briefing on the community from Michael we set off to tour the community. As part of the tour we were invited into the outstandingly designed apartment of John and Polly Marion. The Marions have lived in their apartment for all ten years since the community opened and were able to have their apartment architect designed to exactly their requirements. It is an impeccable example of interior design for active retirement living and we were privileged to be given a detailed presentation of all the details by Polly herself.




The author together with Polly Marion and Michael Morris standing in the way of some of John's delightful art work. Sorry John!

We were also very interested to be taken to see the neighbouring part of the campus to the CCRC which is the Affordable Housing Assisted Living complex built as part of the licensing conditions required by the City authorities. Planning permission in UK terms. It was very encouraging to see the high quality of this accommodation provided for seniors with limited means.




Three members of the very enthusiastic management team who assisted in showing us round are (l to r) Patty Clark, Director of Marketing, Rachel Betzler, Executive Assistant and Alika Castillo, Healthcare Administrator. Our thanks to them all.

This was a special visit for our tour leader Ginger Nuessle, IAHSA's Executive Director as her aunt is a resident at the University Retirement Community.




Mary Louise Greenberg (right) and her niece Ginger enjoyed the opportunity of a reunion and it was our pleasure to meet her.
See: http://www.retirement.org/davis

Visit 2. The Asian Community Center of Sacramento Valley (ACC).
The ACC is a not-for-profit tax exempt organisation whose purpose is to promote the general welfare and to enhance the quality of life for its community by identifying, developing, and providing culturally sensitive health and social services for older adults. The ACC operates three sites: ACC Park City, ACC Greenhaven Terrace and the ACC Nursing Home. Our visit today was to the latter.




Mission. The mission of the ACC Nursing Home (ACCNH) is to provide compassionate and quality care that recognises the ethnic diversity of its community and assures proactive clinical and social services.

Vision. ACC Nursing Home is a premier facility for the community that provides a quality environment and high level of service to all its residents. It is the first choice for families who need a “home away from home” and for their family members who need long-term care. ACCNH is also the employer of choice in the area for nurses, nursing aides, and others who provide a high level of service to its residents.




We were given a presentation on the philosophy and operations of the Nursing Home by Donna Yee, CEO and Darren Trisel, COO/Administrator.
See: www.accsv.org

Visit 3. Aging Services of California, Saramento.
Our final visit of the day was to the offices of the California state provider association and AAHSA affiliate organisation. We were treated to a generous buffet and some delicious Californian wine as we met with the association President/CEO Joanne Handy and members of the Association Board.

At the end of another long but highly interesting day we made for our accommodation at the Citizen Hotel in downtown Sacramento. As I write my blog entry for the day and collect my thoughts on the tour so far I have the TV on in my room as I was hoping to catch something of the great event of the day in these parts - the baseball World Series game between the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers. All I have been getting however have been short snippets of the game interspersed in amongst the less attractive face of the US democratic process which is all the negative election advertising that seems to dominate the TV channels in the run up to next week's national and state elections.

Location:Sacramento, California, USA