01
Dementia-trained caregivers, day and night
Consistent assignments, so each resident sees the same faces every week.
24/7Vol. 04 · ConwayThe Winter Issue
Memory care · Conway, Arkansas
Dance class is full again this semester.
Wisteria Hill is a 36-resident memory care home with a standing partnership with three Conway colleges. Students lead music, movement and art every week, and our residents teach them a thing or two back.
What sets us apart
Where we shine
02
College movement and music classes
Dance, chair yoga and choir led by students from three Conway campuses.
Weekly
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Personal music playlists
Built with your family, loaded onto headphones for the hard hours.
DailyFrom the editor's desk
Dementia changes a lot. It doesn't change who loves a waltz.
Before I ran Wisteria Hill, I taught gerontology at the university down the road. Every semester my students asked the same question: what does a good day look like for someone with Alzheimer's? I opened this house to answer it.
Twenty years in, the answer is surprisingly ordinary. A good day has music in it, and work for the hands, and someone young enough to be impressed by your stories. It has a nurse who notices when you're off your food, and a family that knows what you did this afternoon. We try to give every resident that day, every day, and we write it up each month so families can read along.
— Dr. Celeste Okafor-Lyle, executive director
Photo tour
This month in pictures
Sample family reviews
Letters to the editor
Mother was a dance teacher for forty years. The first Wednesday she corrected a sophomore's posture, and he thanked her. She talked about it for a week.
I live in Denver. The newsletter and the photos are how I know Dad is still Dad.
Marisol caught my husband's urinary infection two days before he had any fever. She knew because he stopped humming at breakfast.
My grandmother's watercolor of the wisteria is framed in the front hall. She has no idea she painted it, and she's prouder of it than anything.
They asked us for her favorite songs before move-in. The first night, they played them at bedtime and she slept until seven.
For families
For families
Practical help for the people who love our residents.
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The monthly newsletter
Photos, the calendar and a note from our nurse, emailed on the first of each month and mailed to anyone who asks.
- 02
Visiting
Come any time. Mornings are calm, afternoons are busy, and Wednesday class is the liveliest hour of the week.
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Your first two weeks
Our nurse calls you every day for the first fourteen days after move-in, even if the news is just that lunch went well.
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Paying for care
Our business office will explain private pay, long-term care insurance and VA benefits, and help with the paperwork.
Our team
The masthead
Dr. Celeste Okafor-Lyle
Executive Director
A former gerontology professor who opened Wisteria Hill in 2004 and still edits the newsletter herself.
Marisol Vega, RN
Director of Nursing
Twenty-two years in long-term care nursing, the last twelve here. She knows every resident's medication list by heart.
Theo Bassett
Life Enrichment Director
A music therapy graduate who coordinates our college partners and plays a mean ragtime piano.
Anh Pham, RN
Night Nurse Supervisor
Keeps the house calm from ten at night to six in the morning, which in memory care is no small thing.
Facebook · Wisteria Hill Memory Care
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Visit
Find us in Conway
- 830 Wisteria Hill Road
Conway, AR
Visitor parking is in front, under the wisteria arbor. Ring the bell at the main door; the courtyard gate is staff-only. - (501) 555-0193
- Text us
- editor@wisteriahill.example
- Wisteria Hill Memory Care
Tour & office hours
- Tours, Mon – Fri9a – 5p
- Tours, Saturday10a – 3p
- Families visitAny time
Visiting is welcome any time. Class schedules are posted at the front desk and on our Facebook page.
Read the house, then come meet it.
Call or text the front desk and we'll set a time, mail you this month's newsletter and save you a seat at lunch.