One Senior Place is one-stop shop for seniors

One Senior Place, a center offering senior care advice and senior-focused businesses, is expanding to Altamonte Springs.

One Senior Place, which opened its first location in Viera, will provide seniors and their caregivers with a one-stop shopping and information resource center for everything from hearing aids and living options to legal advice and counseling.

The expected opening date is February 2012, and the center has 23 offices for potential senior-focused businesses. There will also be a showroom featuring potential senior living choices and a resource library with information about all of the area’s senior organizations and businesses.

“The Orlando area has a tremendous amount of resources, but it’s all fragmented,” said Karen Precord, director of the Orlando location. “We put the pieces together.”

Finding their way

And connecting families to their specific needs in one place is quite a relief for many. For most seniors and their adult children caregivers, this is an overwhelming time, Precord said. Dealing with the new needs that come with becoming seniors is something they don’t look forward to and aren’t always prepared for. She said many of the visitors at One Senior Place come in crisis and have no idea where to start.

“When they do come in they are lost,” Precord said. “We want to empower them to make difficult decisions.”

Every family who visits the center is given a free consultation by a care manager and then is pointed in the right direction for the resources they need. Instead of driving all over town, which many seniors aren’t comfortable with, or calling every business in the phone book, which may not offer what they need, they can come to one place. In Viera, they give these consultations to more than 100 families a month.

“We know shopping for senior services is not fun,” Precord said. “We want them to feel relieved.”

“It’ll give them an added comfort level,” said Peggy Hoyt, of Hoyt and Bryan, an Oviedo law firm that specializes in elder law and will have an office in One Senior Place.

A welcoming place

For Viera resident Charlotte Chapman, who’s been visiting the Viera center since its opening five years ago, comfort and guidance is exactly what she found. When she moved to Florida to be closer to family, she didn’t know where to make friends, get information for future needs or get advice and referrals for medical care.

Now she said she has great doctors she met through One Senior Place, attends events put on by the center’s senior club where she’s made lots of friends and finds herself recruiting new visitors. She said One Senior Place has made making decisions easier for her and others she knows.

“They walk the talk,” Chapman said. “They make you feel welcome and at home.”

Education for families

One Senior Place not only gives you their in-house business options, but also lists others that offer the same type of services. So, if it can’t be everyone’s one-stop shop, it is a place to start for clients who want to look around and find the place that fits their needs, budget and family. It’s a place to get educated on the options.

It will also serve as a place for their businesses to host events and educational seminars. Hoyt’s firm is a counseling-based practice, and she will be holding her workshops there.

Nancy Squillacioti, executive director for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Resource Center, will have an office at One Senior Place with an employee there five days a week. The nonprofit organization offers counseling, education and training to families and professionals caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. They will also be hosting educational seminars for visitors. Squillacioti said this type of business has been a long time coming, and she can’t wait to be a part of a strong network of senior services.

“I think it’s really going to help the quality of life for the seniors in this community and the people that love them,” she said.

Learn more

Visit www.oneseniorplace.com or call Karen Precord at 407-766-9656 for more information about One Senior Place.