Assisted living community opens its doors in Mililani Mauka

MILILANI—Mililani Mauka welcomed the assisted living community, The Plaza at Mililani, earlier this month when the care home opened its doors for the first time. The Plaza is centrally located off of Oahu’s H-2 and offers rental apartments that have been modeled after its sister company, the Plaza at Punchbowl in central Honolulu.

With unique programs, The Plaza offers to enhance residents’ lives and cater to the varying needs of its community members. For these reasons, families seeking care for their elderly relatives find The Plaza to stand out among Oahu’s limited choices for elder care. The memory care program at The Plaza aims to provide a comfortable and secure environment that enables seniors challenged by memory problems, including Alzheimer’s Disease, to successfully make it through their day with the appropriate kind of assistance.

Nancy Kanaar, a Hawaii Island resident, said, “We considered having my mother move into The Plaza. She has serious Alzheimer’s, but she still likes to get up and go about her day like the average person does. The memory program appealed to me and the location being near my daughter on the North Shore.”

According to The Plaza’s website, the living program “has been designed to foster and promote each resident’s autonomy and dignity.” The community hopes to see residents maintain an independent lifestyle while having access to help with everyday tasks such as meal preparation, chores, and personal hygiene. 

Residents have the option of month-to-month private or semi-private rentals that were designed to create the feeling of independence and provide renters with basic apartment amenities such as kitchen areas and Internet connectivity. Services also include three meals a day, 24-hour nurse access, laundering, and transportation. Members of The Plaza community also have full access to the many common areas available including a coffee bistro, lively recreation room, and hair salon.

One Plaza employee said: “They [the deveopers] wanted to incorporate communal areas that people find in their town right onto The Plaza’s property so residents felt at home and have all the ‘normal’ activities they had in daily life right here. They didn’t want it to be your typical nursing home.” With this in mind, The Plaza offers exercise programs, arts and crafts, excursions, and entertainment.

According to Assistedlivinginfo.com, assisted living facilities differ from the more well-known nursing homes in that assisted living facilities are for people needing assistance with “activities of daily living but wishing to live as independently as possible for as long as possible.” Assisted living exists to bridge the gap between independent living and nursing homes by providing health care and help, but also providing the same aspects of life that living in their own home offers.

While nursing homes usually care for extremely frail people, who are unable to care for themselves and usually have serious health problems, assisted living community members are often better-off not living alone and do not need constant care or help with each every day tasks. Assisted living has been described as not an alternative to a nursing home, but as an intermediate level of long-term care appropriate for seniors. Approximately 10 assisted living communities currently provide care to Oahu’s seniors.