Guide to Retirement Living: Peabody Place
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
The past year has been a time of change and evolution for New Hampshire retirement communities. We reached out to several administrators to learn how things are going, what recent challenges have revealed and how residents — and potential community members — can feel secure about their retirement living decisions.
How important are cultural and physical enrichment activities for residents, and what kinds of offerings are available to your residents?
“Our culture at Peabody Place first and foremost provides a warm, loving, homelike environment while embracing the concepts of the Eden Philosophy for our elder family members. The importance of a varied and engaging enrichment program cannot be overstated since quality activities are designed to stave off the effects of loneliness, helplessness and boredom — truly the death knell for elders who may have experienced isolation from their families and society in general. At Peabody Place, no one is ever alone. Peabody is vibrant, bustling with positive energy and filled with music and laughter. Access to human and animal companionship is the norm. Our resident cat provides her own brand of therapy — other pets living here often visit other residents. We’ve kept our program of exercise, walking therapy, fellowship and patriotism in spite of the pandemic. We sing the national anthem every morning, and create outdoor experiences in social groups on the patio, in the gazebo facing the Pemigewasset and host fishing on the shore of the Winnipesaukee river, both of which are literally 50 feet from our doors.”
What makes Peabody Place safe for new residents?
“Herculean effort coupled with a little luck and goodwill from the gods has enabled us to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak at Peabody Place. We mere mortals have learned we are powerless in the face of unrelenting nature, specifically, a raging pandemic that preyed on the most vulnerable. That said, we reviewed our cleaning protocols in March 2020 to ensure that we maintained the highest level of infection control and have continued in that vein since. We still clean multitouch surfaces throughout the day. For 14 months we cleaned every surface every two hours. Scrutiny of the daily health status of staff and a benign oversight of resident health ensured we could pivot at a moment’s notice to any hint of illness within Peabody.
We require all new residents to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. We’ve supported staff as they made the decision to obtain a vaccine. The screening process for all entering the building is consistent and will continue. Simply opening windows creating airflow freshens the interior in tandem with our installed state of the art ventilation system.”
