If you’re thinking of skipping right from your college years to your golden years, you might want to consider settling down in Ithaca. Though the city is best known for its large population of college students, it is also home to three elderly care alternatives to nursing homes.
Scattered throughout the city, these facilities range from assisted living to continuing care, housing many of Cornell’s most notable emeriti.
These homes may be just what elderly people need, according to a 1999 study released by Cornell Profs Peter Chi, policy analysis and management, and Joseph Laquatra, design and environmental analysis. They found that living in a group home is a better alternative to living in a nursing home.
The study also noted that between 10 percent and 50 percent of the nursing home population is put there unnecessarily, and only 1 percent of the population above 65 lives in such homes.
Located off Danby Rd. by Ithaca College, Longview Continuing Care caters to elderly who prefer to live independently while still surrounded by a community.
Residents have private rooms with the options for many activities on the premise.
With strong ties between Longview and Ithaca College, there is a back and forth relationship that allows students and residents to bond.
“IC students do internships, field study and work study at Longview,” said Ellie Hall Minnis, director of development and community relations for Longview as she walked by a student playing chess with one of the residents.
Many of the students teach them how to use computers and run programs for them.
Because IC has a large aging studies program, students work at Longview as part of their classes. Professors also come from IC to teach classes in the facility.
Elderly residents are also able to take classes at IC free of charge as long as the classes aren’t filled.
“Residents take a shuttle bus down the road to Ithaca College for class,” Hall Minnis said. “I have a resident who is taking anthropology and theatre. This is the time of their lives.”
“This is a real community. When you walk around you’ll get a sense of it,” Hall Minnis added.
Next Spring the community will be expanding, when Longview breaks ground on “Phase II” of its facility — a specialized care unit for more frail residents
Kendal at Ithaca, another facility off Triphammer Rd. caters to people in a similar physical state as Longview, but a different niche, according to Hall Minnis. Kendal could be described as a relic of Cornell’s past, as many former Cornell professors and administrators live in the facility.
Conceived in 1990 as a place where elderly could live with assistance but still stimulate their minds, the facility came to fruition in 1995 with the help of Cornell’s President Emeritus Dale Corson, now a resident of Kendal.
Residents maintain an active lifestyle, as chronicled on a website updated by and for the people who live in the community. The website links to pictures of people knitting, having meetings, swimming in the pool and doing ceramics.
The facility is one of only twelve continuing care homes commissioned by the state where residents pay money upon moving into the facility and are guaranteed care for the rest of their lives.
“We’re a rare beast,” said Betsy Schermerhorn, director of marketing for Kendal.
Bridges Cornell Heights, an assisted living facility on Wykoff Ave., just off North Campus, houses only fourteen people with a large number of nursing aids, chefs and entertainment staff, valets and concierges.
“Our staffing ratio is unparalleled,” said Elizabeth Ambrose, owner of Bridges. “We have a staff member for every three residents … We are also able to bring in a lot of live entertainment for the residents.”
Ambrose added that many recognizable people affiliated with Cornell live at Bridges, though the names of residents are not disseminated.
Because Bridges is so close to Cornell, students from a variety of backgrounds volunteer at the facility. Pre-medical students, student organizations and fraternity and sorority members all help out.
So why does Ithaca, a small city of only about 30,000 non-students have three group home options available?
The Cornell Chronicle wrote in the 1999 study that, “Group housing, the researchers found, is more likely to be available in affluent communities with more physicians and higher educational levels. Communities that are least likely to offer group housing tend to be rural with low per-capita income.”
The study suggests that as the Baby Boomer generation ages, the number of group elderly care facilities should increase.
With news breaking today that a nursing home in Syracuse, just an hour away from Ithaca, made the federal government’s list of the 54 worst nursing homes in the country, the abundance of alternative elderly care facilities in Ithaca sheds light on the dichotomies in elderly housing options in upstate New York.