Nestled next door to the Southern California Conference office in Glendale, independent living facility Scholl Canyon Estates offers home-cooked meals, exercise classes, game nights, group outings, housekeeping, live-in managers, and much more. Many of the activities are offered free of charge, and they are open to residents as well as members of the community.
“I look at my job as a ministry,” said Christina Helm, regional director of sales and marketing for Hawthorn Senior Living. “I think everybody that works here looks at it that way, and we really instill in our employees that heart, because we’re not just here as a business to make money. We’re here to change lives and to be a ministry to the residents and the people that we serve.”
With 37% of older U.S. adults experiencing loneliness in 2023,* the community at Scholl Canyon offers fun and friends. “We had a beanbag baseball game, and it was the residents against the staff,” Helm shared. “If you could have heard the taunting and the cheers and the fun that we had—it was truly like a family.”
At Scholl Canyon, “you can just be who you are and be accepted. We want to love on people—whether they’re a resident or just curious,” Helm said.
Keeping residents healthy is an important part of Scholl Canyon’s mission, and partnerships with Aegis Therapies and Tender Loving Care Caregiving provide personal care. Aegis Therapies functions as a care center that provides outpatient services, like blood pressure checks and physical therapy, to residents and community members, while Tender Loving Care Caregiving provides homecare, like medication reminders or assistance with daily tasks following surgery.
Resident Carl Held shares about various day-to-day challenges residents experience, including memory loss and dementia, and he praises the staff who are so patient. “They cope with all of it,” Held said. “If I had their patience, I would be a saint.”
“Family members will come into the office after a couple of weeks, and they’ll just be so appreciative of what we’ve done for their mom or dad,” managers Eileen and Paul Richardson note. “They’ll give us a hug, sometimes they’ll even cry, because it’s been a great weight off their shoulders, knowing that mom is in a safe place and happy and having fun.”
*As reported by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
