Pacifica Companies, a senior living operator with 70 communities throughout the United States, has announced a new Executive Director. The company named Stacie Dawes as Executive Director of its luxury Assisted Living and Memory Care community in Oxnard. Dawes, a licensed psychotherapist specializing in senior care for over 18 years, was the Community Relations Director for the Northridge, CA community prior. Pacifica Senior Living, Oxnard is currently under construction, is located at 2211 E. Gonzales Road, Oxnard.

Stacie has been working with seniors for over 18 years. She began her rewarding career as a licensed psychotherapist of her own private practice helping senior with aging challenges as well as guiding families transition their loved ones into assisted living and memory care communities. Stacie has worked with the Pacifica family since 2012 and loves working with seniors.

She states, “It’s a gift having the opportunity to meet and gain knowledge from listening to their history. I obtain simple words of wisdom through hearing their life stories.”

She is proud to offer families more senior living care options, and the peace of mind that comes with the high quality standards that sets Pacifica apart. Stacie and her husband Jeffrey have been married for 21 years and are the parents of two adult children who are both attending University of Oregon.

Pacifica Senior Living and Memory Care, a 74-unit community slated to open Late 2017 is now Pre-Leasing. Featuring a range of lifestyle options from luxury, resort-style living to personalized care when you need it, they will provide services for assisted living and memory care residents.

During National Family Caregivers Month, the Ventura Parkinson’s Disease Support Group joins with the Caregiver Action Network and many local and national Caregiver Support organizations who recognize the challenges family caregivers face when their loved ones need Caregiving Around the Clock!

Everyone is welcome to join the Ventura Parkinson’s Disease Support Group on Wednesday, November 8th from 1-3pm at the Lexington Assisted (5440 Ralston, Ventura) as we observe National Family Caregivers month. We hope to help raise awareness of family caregiver issues, celebrate the efforts of and educate family caregivers and also, hopefully increase support for family caregivers.

The value of the services family caregivers provide for “free,” when caring for older adults, is estimated to be as high as $375 billion a year. That is almost twice as much as is actually spent on homecare and nursing home services combined ($158 billion). Higher-hour caregivers are more likely to feel caregiving has had a negative impact on their health. (Stats from National Alliance for Caregiving and Evercare. March 2009 & AARP 2015).

A large and growing body of evidence reveals that providing care for a chronically sick person can have harmful physical, mental, and emotional consequences for the caregiver. In 2006, hospitalization of an elderly spouse was found to be associated with an increased risk of caregiver death. Elderly spousal caregivers (aged 66-96) who experience caregiving-related stress have a 63% higher mortality rate than non-caregivers of the same age. (Stats from Family Caregiver Alliance; Schulz, R. & Beach, S. (1999). Caregiving as a risk factor for mortality: The Caregiver Health Effects Study, JAMA, 282: 2215-2219; Christakis, N.A. & Allison, P.D. (2006). Mortality after the hospitalization of a spouse. New England Journal of Medicine, 354: 719-730.)

All area Parkinson’s Support Group members and their Care-Partners/Caregivers and those who are in the Caregiving field who would like to add their information to the ‘resource table’ of handouts, are welcome to join the Ventura Parkinson’s Disease Support Group to learn and discuss the challenges family caregivers face and how to manage them day and night.

Speakers will be Courtney M Darrough, Program Manager of “Caregivers – Volunteers Assisting the Elderly”; Katherine Lamb Mays, Manager, and John Macias, Director, of “Livingston CareGivers”; and Samantha Carnell, MSW Care Coordinator of “Wellness & Caregiver Center of Ventura County”.

Thanks to the generosity of the Lexington Assisted meetings are held every second Wednesday of the month (except December) .There is a drop-off/loading and unloading driveway in the front of the building. Extra parking is graciously available across the street from the Lexington in the Baptist Church parking lot.

Please check in at the front desk for directions to the 3rd floor and sign-in at the meeting. For more information please call Patty at 766-6070 They are an independent and volunteer-organized group not affiliated with or a part of any other organization or group.

Nov. 14 (2nd Tues. of each month), 1:30 – 4 p.m.,and Nov. 28 (4th Tues. of each month), at SCAN Health and Wellness Center, 6633 Telephone Rd., Ste., 100, led by Marty Capsuto. Center is for those 55+ and guests, so Marty will guest sponsor all Songmakers under 55. Located three blocks east of Ventura County Gov’t Center, corner of Partridge & Telephone. Plenty of parking behind building. For more information , contact Marty at 658-0365 or [email protected]

Ventura County Bell Arts Song Circle- Nov. 24 (4th Friday of each month), 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. Like to play acoustic music? Songmakers.org welcomes all lovers of acoustic music—instrumentalists, singers, and singer/songwriters of all levels—to join in a free song circle at the Bell Arts Factory Community Room, 432 N. Ventura Ave. Listeners welcome! Information: Mike Wittlin, 750-8281

Treacy Villa Residential Care Facility will hold an open house in celebration of the memory care facility’s thirtieth anniversary and to honor its founder, Mr. Patrick Treacy, who will be the Guest of Honor at the three-hour long party. Free to local community members, medical providers and business people, the open house will take place on Friday, November 3, from 3:00p.m. to 6:00p.m. at Treacy Villa, which is located at 3282 Loma Vista Road and Mills Road.

A food buffet will offer plenty to eat plus live entertainment and special guests. Parking will be behind Treacy Villa with easy access from Mills Road.

Treacy Villa Residential Care Facility has been serving Ventura County families since 1987 when Patrick Treacy first opened the doors to his 49-bed home. Treacy Villa has provided a secure environment for its special memory care residents for the entire thirty years of its operation. In addition to memory care Treacy Villa also provides respite care, transitional care, and hospice care. Visit their web site for more information at www.TreacyVilla.com, or phone 644-1292.

The Ventura County Community Foundation (VCCF) has awarded Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association (Livingston) a $105,000 grant to cover the costs of its merger with Camarillo Hospice.

Vanessa Bechtel, President/CEO of VCCF said of the gift, “The Foundation’s commitment to strategic grant making could not be better represented than through this $105,000 grant to Livingston from the Ruth Daily Livingston Fund. The recent merger between Livingston and Camarillo Hospice not only provides a seamless and more effective provision of services to terminally ill patients and their loved ones but also utilizes precious financial resources in a more impactful manner. The Ruth Daily Livingston Fund was created with the specific purpose of supporting health care services in Ventura County and is a fitting tribute to the memory of her husband, Dr. W.R. Livingston, an esteemed pioneer physician of Ventura County.”

Lanyard Dial, MD, President/CEO and Medical Director of Livingston called VCCF’s generous gift, “welcome recognition from Ventura’s philanthropic heart that it takes a strong web of community support to provide care and bereavement services for the terminally ill and their love ones.”

For information on Livingston’s home healthcare, hospice or in-home assistance programs visit lmvna.org or call 642-0239.

Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association provides healthcare in the home for the sick, handicapped, elderly and homebound. Livingston is a community-supported non-profit agency, which provides professional, licensed home health and hospice care. Livingston is sensitive to the financial circumstances of its patients and provides needed services, including those at reduced or no charge to indigent patients.

Established in 1987, the Ventura County Community Foundation focuses on building philanthropy in Ventura County by stewarding legacies through careful management of charitable capital. VCCF honors donor intent by protecting endowments and specializing in connecting philanthropic resources with community needs. VCCF invests in the future through scholarships, grant making, and collaborative partnerships.

Have you ever had a dream? Hope Jeter did. Hope is a resident at Cypress Place Senior Living in Ventura. She resides in their Generations Memory Care community, a specially designed area for residents with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Just shy of her 95th birthday, Hope shared that her dream was to ride on a motorcycle. Asked if she had ever been on one she replied, “No. I’ve sat on one standing still, but I’ve never ridden on one.”

When Generations Memory Care Coordinator, Sarah Perez, got wind of Hope’s dream, Sarah and the staff at Cypress Place went to work to fulfill that dream. With the help of Melinda and Becky from Ventura Harley-Davidson, and motorcycle owner Jim Estes, Hope took her very first ride in a sidecar, at the tender age of 94!

Jim invited his Harley riding friends, Tucker, Robert, Patricia and Gregory to join the procession. Cypress Place friends followed along in the Cypress bus to cheer her on. The adventure included a sidecar trip to Rincon, lunch at In-n-Out Burger, and a basket full of gifts from Ventura Harley Davidson, all making it a memory-making, ride-of-a-lifetime for Hope.

If you have a loved one struggling with dementia, Cypress Place Senior Living will be hosting a Dementia 101 Seminar titled “Exciting Breakthroughs & Practical Tips”. Guest speaker for the seminar will be Norma Featherston, R.N., M.S., Gerontology. Featherston is a geriatric care consultant with New Hope Senior Services.

A variety of important topics regarding Dementia will be covered including: who can get it, how they get it, what to expect, practical tips and strategies for everyday use, and information on exciting breakthrough research and what it means for you.

The free Dementia 101 seminar takes place from 10a.m. to 11:30a.m. on Saturday October 14 at Cypress Place Senior Living in Ventura and is open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Ventura County Behavioral Health (VCBH) and the Ventura Council for Seniors (VCS) will present a panel discussion to be held on Thursday, September 28 at Ventura Adult and Continuing Education (VACE), 5200 Valentine Road. The program starts at 9:30 am and lunch will be provided afterward, compliments of the Downtown Ventura Rotary. The Forum will discuss prescription drug and aging issues as they relate to driver safety. VCBH in partnership with VCS and the California Office of Traffic Safety is bringing experts together with the community to talk about new issues facing older drivers. Older drivers already may be inhibited by slower reflexes so adding drugs into that mix can cause even more problems like crashes. If suspected, they may be required to have drug testing Philadelphia carried out or be sent to a facility to have one done to make sure the levels of a drug in their system was the reason.

“As Ventura’s most vulnerable and largest demographic population, we need to be acutely aware of our ability to drive,” Suz Montgomery detailed. “Many seniors have medical conditions that may warrant the need for taking prescription drugs; however we need to learn about how they may impair our ability to drive.”

With panelists from The Ventura County Health Care Agency, Ventura County Area Agency on Aging, and Ventura Police Department, a number of concerns and interests will be addressed.

“A narcotic in high doses, or a wrong mixture of prescription drugs could lead to driving mishaps,” stated Thomas Duncan, Chief of Staff/Trauma Medical Director at Ventura County Medical Center. “People should ask their health care provider about the potential effects of their medications on driving habits.”

In the most recent “National Roadside Study of Alcohol and Drug Use by Drivers” completed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, one in five drivers age 65 and older tested positive for at least one or more of the 98 over-the-counter, prescription, and illegal substances in the road side survey, the largest survey of its kind in the United States.

To reduce diversions of drugs from home medicine cabinets to sewers, the Ventura Police Department will also offer a drug “take back” at the forum. Attendees are invited to bring old and unused prescription and OTC medications in order to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of them, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse and misuse of medications.

To RSVP for the forum, please contact David Tovar at 973-5376 or [email protected]. Funding for the grant is from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.