Press Release Details

Somerby at St. Vincent's retirement community collaborates with Masterpiece Living to offer retirees ways to stay active

Friday, May 15, 2009
DAVE PARKS
News staff writer

Somerby at St. Vincent's One Nineteen, a retirement community now under construction, has formed a collaboration relationship with Masterpiece Living, a nationwide initiative that keeps older people mentally, physically and socially active.

"This is what the new older adult wants," said Dr. Roger Landry, a retired Air Force physician and founder of Masterpiece Living. In a telephone interview, Landry said his organization is operating in 31 locations nationwide, and constantly growing in quantity and quality of care.

Many of the Masterpiece Living locations are like Somerby, a 200-unit independent and assisted living rental community. Somerby is in final stages of construction in Hoover, and will offer maintenance-free living with resort-style eating, entertainment and fitness amenities.

Somerby will be the first location in Alabama to offer Masterpiece Living services, which are based largely upon findings of a MacArthur Foundation Study on Aging. That 10-year study concluded that successful aging - defined as maintaining a high level of function until shortly before death - was dependent upon physical, mental and social activity.

"There's no question we can influence lifestyle of residents in a positive way," said Landry, who will speak in Birmingham on Thursday. Masterpiece Living works by individually assessing people with a system developed by the Mayo Clinic. People are given options for behavior modification and health risk management individually designed to improve their lives.

"We don't give up on anyone," Landry said. "We believe older adults can grow."

For example, Landry said Masterpiece Living has just started working with dementia patients in California with promising results. "We've seen some pretty remarkable things," he said.

After assessing people with dementia and implementing lifestyle changes, these patients experienced significant improvement in physical and mental capacity, along with fewer signs of depression.

Landry is quick to add that Masterpiece Living is not a cure-all. "I'm not saying we can eliminate symptoms," he said, "but we can improve quality of life."

E-mail: dparks@bhamnews.com