Changing Senior-living Views

TRICIA MEDEIROS
The Plaza Assisted Living chief operating officer

In 2004, when we opened our first location – The Plaza at Punchbowl – assisted living was a relatively unfamiliar concept to most in Hawai‘i. Senior living communities existed, which are similar to the Senior Care Pinellas County offers, but the perception of what they were and what they were meant for was very different from today.

The Plaza at Punchbowl started off as an answered promise from two local businessmen to their parents. After facing challenges as caregivers themselves, they vowed to create a premier senior living community that offered a lifestyle and model of care built on quality, innovation, support and empowerment; a place Hawai‘i’s older adults would want to call home. With the opening of our Punchbowl community, their promise was fulfilled.

However, after six years as a one-community company, it became clear that growth was necessary. The Plaza began expanding into neighborhoods where populations were aging, and the need for senior assisted-living options rising. From 2010 to 2019, The Plazas at Mililani, Moanalua, Pearl City, Waikīkī and Kāne‘ohe were opened.

Today, while different in location, architectural design and overall feel, all six of our communities offer the same premier lifestyle and model of care to residents needing independent living, assisted living, memory care or extended care (the latter of which is available at The Plaza at Kāne‘ohe only).

A nurse at The Plaza Assisted Living helps a resident. PHOTOS COURTESY THE PLAZA ASSISTED LIVING

They all provide varied apartment options, modern amenities, access to recreational and wellness activities, restaurant-style dining, scheduled transportation, weekly housekeeping, and access to 24-hour nursing and personal care. To date, we’ve been home to well over 4,000 residents.

As we enter our 17th year of serving our residents and their families, we look forward to continued growth and expanding toward becoming an overall care solutions provider to Hawai‘i’s older adult population.

While The Plaza Assisted Living was not the first company in Hawai‘i to offer assisted living, I’d like to think we played a significant role in changing perceptions of what senior living is and can be. It’s not a place where someone “goes to” or is “sent to,” but rather a place someone comes home to, a place where they have friends, an extended family and caring staff to help them foster their independence with dignity and respect.

For more information, visit plazaassistedliving.com or call 377-5292.