Heisinger Bluffs renovates Riverview assisted living center

Kevin Evers cuts a hole for a water pipe in the area being remodeled at Heisinger Bluffs. Evers works for Summit Mechanical and Plumbing in Jefferson City and is just one of a number of people working to expand the dining facilities at the home.
Kevin Evers cuts a hole for a water pipe in the area being remodeled at Heisinger Bluffs. Evers works for Summit Mechanical and Plumbing in Jefferson City and is just one of a number of people working to expand the dining facilities at the home.

Heisinger Bluffs & St. Joseph's Bluffs senior living center on West Main Street in Jefferson City recently began a $200,000 renovation to its Riverview assisted living neighborhood.

One of three assisted living neighborhoods at Heisinger, Riverview is about 10 years old and serves 32 people.

The renovation will update the communal kitchen, dining room, living room, spa room and outdoor deck.

Currently walled off from each other, the kitchen, dining room and living room will be opened into one area to make it easier for residents to dine on their own schedules.

"Everything was enclosed in a little room that wasn't very accessible to the residents, and now everything's going to be open," said Sherry King, executive director of Heisinger Bluffs & St. Joseph's Bluffs. "It makes it more home-like. At the end of the day it will look more like what you have in your home."

The changes to the building will mirror changes to the assisted living center's care approach, as elderly care has moved more toward "person-centered care" over the past several years, King explained.

"How we used to do things was really more for staff scheduling. It was more on our schedule instead of residents'. Breakfast was at 8 o'clock; you were in the dining room at 8 o'clock, and that was it," she said. "Now we have what we call open dining, which means basically you can eat anytime you want to."

The new, handicapped-accessible kitchen will include a stocked refrigerator and cupboards, as well as a stove with an induction cooktop for safety.

Other improvements will include adding a new handicapped-accessible Whirlpool tub and fireplace to the spa/tub room and screening in the deck.

"One of the other reasons we did this is because people now stay in assisted living longer so that they don't have to go to the care center, which means that we tend to take people who have more needs than what they used to have," King said. "We try as much as possible here to allow our residents to age in place, wherever that place might be."

Construction began Dec. 1 by GBH Builders, and King estimated the project should be completed within two months.