Pennsylvania Soldiers And Sailors Home

The Pennsylvania Soldiers and Sailors Home sits on 26 acres overlooking Lake Erie in Erie, Pennsylvania, and has been serving veterans since 1886, making it the oldest of the six veterans homes in the state, and it is run by the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, which also runs other homes like Delaware Valley Veterans Home and Southeastern Veterans Center. The Home gives care and support for veterans and their families, and is a place where men and women who served, along with their spouses, can get help, as long as they lived in Pennsylvania and have an honorable discharge. The community is pretty unique; it's the only veterans home in Pennsylvania with its own four-acre Veterans Memorial Cemetery right on the grounds, where burials for veterans and their spouses take place, and around the outside you can walk by rows of flags, a Civil War cannon, and the Major General "Mad Anthony" Wayne Blockhouse. The facility holds 100 beds for personal or domiciliary care, and 107 beds for skilled or intermediate care, so there's a range of care from independent living to assisted living, and on up to nursing care for people who need more help with things like wound care, rehab, round-the-clock nursing attention, memory care for Alzheimer's and dementia, and even hospice services. Sometimes primary caregivers need a break, so respite care gives them short-term relief, and the Home will support outpatient needs with adult day services or short-term stays, too. Staff and caregivers include many veterans, and they provide practical help with things like daily activities, bathing, meals, medication, and laundry, plus things like diabetic care, non-ambulatory care, dentist visits, pharmacy, physical therapy, counseling, and even a barber. State and county Veterans Affairs offices, including the Erie office at 560 E. Third Street, help residents with federal VA benefits, and the Advisory Council, appointed by the Governor, makes suggestions to the Adjutant General about how the Home runs. Rooms come with private bathrooms, air conditioning, cable TV, Wi-Fi, kitchenettes, and wheelchair access, and everyone eats nutritious meals prepared with quality ingredients, with diets tailored for specific needs. Residents can gather in indoor and outdoor common areas, join devotional or fitness activities, enjoy music and movie nights, relax in the spa, walk garden paths, visit activity and game rooms, or use transportation and parking. Housekeeping, laundry, maintenance, concierge help, and emergency alert systems come included, and costs can be handled with accepted programs like Medicaid and Medicare. The Home really tries to help each person remain as independent as possible for as long as they can, so there's independent living for active seniors with things like housekeeping and meals, assisted living with daily help, and long-term skilled care when it's needed, and the community has memory care programs for veterans with memory loss, with higher levels of care and cost when necessary. Since many of the staff are veterans themselves, they understand what residents need and keep patriotism at the heart of daily life.