by John Dowd
West Hills Assisted Living, an elderly home in Hamilton, has had some big changes over the last several months. According to Alina Goman, who started the home in 2016 with her husband Gabriel, it was time to retire, and it was also a good time to end a project that has been several years in the making.
Gabriel’s parents operated their own assisted living home in Seattle for over 25 years and Alina was also in the career for almost 25 years. According to her, they started West Hills with “extensive experience with residential type assisted living.”
When the two decided to retire, they also found that they wanted to make sure the home stayed around. “When the residents come here, they become part of our family,” said Alina. The Gomans wanted to make sure their residents were still looked after. Fortunately, they were contacted by Vicki Moss and her husband Robert.
“We have so much heart and soul into this,” said Alina, and she is optimistic, believing Vicki and her husband will maintain that same care. She also believes that, with Vikki taking the reins, the place will be getting a huge upgrade.
Vikki is a registered nurse and she has nearly 20 years of experience in health care, having worked in the past through Marcus Daly and eventually Partners in Home Care. Much of that time she spent working with the elderly and assisted living places, aiding with medication and other duties requiring registered nurses, which standard staff cannot perform. Through that experience, she got involved with West Hills Assisted Living, and said, “I liked this model the best.”
Vicki officially took over in January, but the process started as far back as September. The reason for the slow changeover was for the sake of the residents. This is because, as both women explained, some residents can have great difficulties with change, especially in their living space.
“You want the residents to feel safe,” said Vicki, “and if they don’t they may stop eating and you could lose some of them.”
“We believe in aging in place,” said Alina, which involves providing a growing scale of care based on individual resident needs. This is meant to further prevent the need for a resident to move, and thus eliminating as much change as possible. In fact, Vicki and her husband have been helping out and meeting all the residents throughout this time to further smooth out that change.
Along with the change in ownership, the home is celebrating the coming end to a project started in 2019. They are calling their project “Puzzle Masterpiece Collection,” a collection of five works of art. These pieces were created by taking very large complicated puzzles, all wildlife themed, and gluing them each to a backboard. The puzzles were completed by residents, staff, families and friends, and are considered by those at West Hills to be a culmination of all the love that goes into maintaining the place and the residents themselves.
The idea for the pieces stemmed from the help the home received from the Hamilton Christian Academy in creating their garden. “In return, we decided to do something beautiful for them,” said Alina. At that time, puzzle-doing was in vogue among the residents, and the puzzles for the pieces were fully completed and almost ready to donate as-is. However, after COVID-19 and the pandemic, the puzzles were stored away and left alone.
A resurgence of interest in the pieces came after one of the home’s residents, 98-year-old Betty Barrett, entered the county fair. Apparently, she has entered fairs for years, and often entered a type of freezer jam. This last year, Barrett won first place overall for her freezer jam. “It was so delicious we could barely keep one jar for the fair!” said Alina.
The home discovered there was a way they could enter their art into the fair as well, entering into a special category for assisted living spaces. They decided to enter a puzzle piece they made with a patriotic theme. The puzzle included an eagle, and the staff and residents brainstormed, eventually adding more to the simple puzzle on a backboard. They added printouts of the constitution, burned the edges and antiqued them to place around the puzzle, and more objects to give it a theme. They then named it “Out of the Ashes.” Their piece earned second place in its category. “Then, all the creative ideas started!” said Alina. The people of West Hills decided to continue work on the other pieces in a similar way, with each having a theme and including real-world objects around the puzzles. The project even brought on the participation of the Moss couple, with Robert making the frames. Alina believes this was a great experience for them all to work together on during the change-over.
The pieces will go into the Explore the Arts Galley for display. Once done there, they will make it to an auction to benefit the Hamilton Christian Academy. West Hills Assisted Living will be donating four of the five pieces to the academy’s annual auction, which will take place April 5, at 6 p.m. at the Assembly of God Church at 601 W Main, in Hamilton. The auction is a dinner and black-tie event, and participants will need to pre-register to attend. They can do this by contacting the academy by calling (406) 363- 4534, or by going online to their website, hamiltonchristianacademy.org and looking for their Spring Gala Auction.
The original piece that won at the fair will remain displayed in the West Hills Assisted Living home. According to Alina, over 30 people contributed to these pieces, and “a lot of love, a lot of hours and a lot of labor” went into them. “Honestly, I think they are so beautiful,” said Alina. “They turned out a lot better than any of us imagined!”
West Hills Assisted Living is different from other assisted living spaces in the sense that it is considered “residential,” said Alina. In this kind of space, residents live as if they were renting it. The space is not a facility, and much more like a regular residential home or apartment. However, residents receive care for all their needs, similar to a standard assisted living facility. Alina compared this to a form of independent living, with a much more involved level of care. Technically, residents can come and go as they please. However, most of the current residents at West Hills need assistance with everything they do. “Most of them are pretty dependent,” said Vicki.
Residents also get to keep their doctor, and staff at the home stay in tight communication with the patients’ doctors. Staff constantly monitor residents and help them stay healthy throughout the day, and are available at night. This is why Alina believes having a registered nurse will be so beneficial, as having one working in the space all the time can provide that service 24/7. They are also a small group, with the home currently having only six residents.
Those interested in touring West Hills Assisted Living can call Vicki at (406) 407-3749 to schedule an appointment.