Albright LIFE Center: ‘A little piece of heaven’

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A building that once provided visually impaired men and women with jobs now provides a nursing-home alternative.

A ribbon-cutting Wednesday morning invited more than 100 guests to tour the Albright LIFE Center at 901 Memorial Ave., the former North Central Sight Services building.

With an on-site registered nurse, laundry and beauty facilities, library, "quiet room," bathtub, shower and kitchen, the facility provides an eight-hour-a-day, five-days-a-week nursing home facility.

"We're doing something a little different, but doing something for our community," said Seneca Foote, Albright CEO.

Mayor Gabriel J. Campana called the center an "investment" in the community.

"I believe this will really make a difference in revitalizing this neighborhood," Campana said, adding that the center houses a police station for two on-foot or bicycle police officers.

John Rider was one of the center's first patients, according to his wife, Betsy.

"They take care of everything," she said.

Rider called her husband's medical evaluation by LIFE physician Dr. William F. Keenan "much better than any other doctor." When John needed to visit a medical specialist, the center took him to his appointments.

"It's as if he was their child," Rider said, adding that the staff doesn't "talk down" to her husband.

The center provides transportation to and from the center and education on obtaining necessary home-care supplies. Rider said her husband recently received a lift-chair, thanks to work done by Albright LIFE.

Family education is another part of the facilities practice. Every member of the Rider family has learned how to properly lift and transport their father, Rider said.

"They taught us how to do everything," she said.

"The biggest thing is the people. They're warm, loving and creative," Rider said. "They're so loving. I know every single one of them."

The staff includes physical, occupational and speech therapists, registered nurses, social workers, case managers, a recreation director and more.

Breakfast and lunch are provided. Sandy Hill, intake coordinator, said the center can send a meal home for those patients who may need it.

Being able to keep John Rider home was important to his wife.

"We just dreaded the thought of a nursing home," she said.

"It's a little piece of heaven," Rider said of the LIFE center. "I feel like the angels are right down here. I can name them all."

The center is for people 60 or older and long-term nursing home clinically eligible. The cost is roughly $3,900 per month, which can be covered by the state's Medicaid program, private insurance, privately or by a combination of the three. Medicaid will pay the full cost for most people with a monthly income of $1,911 or less.

Six people are enrolled in the program, but the LIFE center can serve about 130 patients, because "they won't all be here at the same time," Hill said.