LONE TREE

Lone Tree’s Pioneer Park is situated on East Pioneer Road at the east edge of town with county land at its backyard.

The senior care facility may not be in downtown Lone Tree, but that does not stop them from doing their best to provide assisted living, memory care and long-term care for the residents of Lone Tree and farther afield.

“The atmosphere here is what you would get in a small town,” Leah Reid, Pioneer Park’s Social Services Director, said. “We are able to get to know the residents better and figure things out easier. That is probably the biggest draw for a lot of people.”

Reid deals with admission, discharge, and resident assessments. She also facilitates therapies and finds resources for a resident if they desire to leave, among other things. She’s held the position since March 2023 and admits to their being a learning curve since her previous job was spent with children. But in her brief time at Pioneer Park, she’s learned a lot about the job and decries any bad connotations of senior living facilities.

“I think care facilities and nursing homes sometimes have a bad connotation, like everyone jokes, ‘Please don’t put me in one,’” Reid said. “But I think if you find the right one, it’s kind of [exciting]. I loved living in a dorm room in college, and sometimes it feels like you just get to live with all your friends. I think that’s the better connotation for care facilities.”

Pioneer Park’s maximum capacity is 42; there are 37 residents currently on the premises. The facility’s small size allows them to provide more personalized care. This includes a contracted therapy team that is a major draw for Pioneer Park.

“A lot of people say that our therapy team is really good,” Reid said. “[Some] people come in thinking they’re never going to reach their goal of walking again or something like that, but then they are very surprised when they do.”

And the therapy services are widespread, used heavily by Pioneer Park’s Long-Term Care and Skilled Nursing Facility.

“If someone were to go break a hip, and they had surgery, [they can] come and live here [during] rehab,” Reid said.

Pioneer Park’s Long-Term Care and Skilled Nursing Facility provides patients with three room options: semi-private – a room that is likely shared, but dividers keep it private – for $226 a day; a private room for $249 a day; and a private suite for $269 a day.

Patients can receive different forms of therapy, intermediate care, and 24/7 nursing with three meals provided each day. The service also provides daily activities to “promote psycho-social well-being.”

Ultimately, the goal for patients here is to return home when they have recovered.

Levels of assisted living

Though Pioneer Park does not offer independent living, their assisted living is the next closest thing.

Assisted living is a service where residents have their own space, roomy apartments that feature a full kitchen, two bathrooms (one full), a living room and bedroom. They’re assisted with medicine and food, receiving as much or as little daily help as they need/want.

Pioneer Park offers three levels of care, with level one offering the least amount of assistance and level three offering the most.

“In assisted living, [we] can cater to whatever kinds of care that you need. You can get as much as you want, or as little as you want,” Reid said. “If you need more care, that’s when it would be a higher level.”

Residents participate in community events like Bingo, bus rides, visits from elementary school students, in-house church and beautician services, board games, porch talks and more.

During the holidays, they celebrated with a “Thanks-Mas” party which combined both Thanksgiving and Christmas. The staff provided the residents with presents from Santa and cooked a meal for the residents and their families.

“I’ve never seen them all smile so big,” Reid said.

And when parades fill the streets of Lone Tree, the route always includes Pioneer Park, further cementing them within the community.

Units and pricing for assisted living are based on the level of care the resident needs. Level one prices start at $3,900 a month. Level two starts at $4,150 and level three starts at $4,400.

Not just anyone can qualify for assisted living, however. To qualify, residents must need assistance with two or more activities of daily living. This includes things like bathing, grooming, dressing, cooking, mobility and more.

But they also must be stable and predictable, to a degree.  For example, a patient who suffers from dementia would not be an ideal candidate for traditional assisted living as they typically need more care as their symptoms worsen, and they tend to be unpredictable.

This is where Pioneer Park’s memory wing steps in.

Pioneer Park’s website describes the facility as “designed for individuals with memory loss, Alzheimer’s and/or Dementia,” and their memory care wing is a controlled assisted living region with a “low stimulating” environment to help with residents’ gradual memory loss.

Each resident has an individual plan, and staff is on-site 24/7 to ensure their safety. Safety precautions include doors that need a passcode to open and stoves that automatically shut off. This prevents accidents while allowing for daily activities such as cooking. 

Residents in the memory wing are still capable of doing most things on their own, they just need an extra measure of assistance to improve their lives. They still live in the same style apartments as other residents, just in a different wing of the building. These residents also have access to three meals a day and the same activities as everyone else.

The standard unit pricing starts at $4,900 per month.

Pioneer Park accepts most forms of payments. Contact Pioneer Park at (319) 629-4255 for availability and payment plans for yourself or a loved one.