With 26 years of experience in seniors housing and health care, Arnold Richman takes joy in his job every day. “I really enjoy creating environments for seniors that provide them much better alternatives typically than they would have if we weren’t producing independent living and assisted living facilities,” he said.
After nearly 30 years in the industry, Arnold is still “trying to constantly improve the way we provide services to seniors.” The Caring with PRIDE Principles at Shelter Senior Living are a set of five principles that represent the dedication and commitment of the employees. “We use them to guide everything we do,” Arnold said. “That’s a program that suggests the principles that are really the value statement for our entire company and helps create a culture of excellence and of customer service.” The program espouses Professionalism, Resident Rights, Individuality, Daily living support and Emotional support as the PRIDE principles.
Shelter Senior Living has also established the Wellspring Program, which provides secure and interactive housing for Alzheimer’s residents. A director works full-time in each unit, which contains 20 to 24 residents. “The entire focus of the program from the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep is on their particular needs and things they can do and feel good about,” he said. “They’re kept very active during all the daytime hours, and there are always group activities taking place.”
The program was conceived during Richman’s 25 years at Meridian Healthcare, and he further developed the idea at Shelter Senior Living. “We did a lot of work with some consultants from Johns Hopkins University to develop programs for Alzheimer patients. We’ve modeled Wellspring programs after the work done with them,” Arnold said.
Richman serves on a number of civic and business-related boards, including the Associated-Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, The Park School, and Enterprise Homes Inc. However, his favorite is the Safe and Sound Campaign, which focuses on developing comprehensive strategies to take care of children’s issues in Baltimore.
Shelter Senior Living, a division of the Shelter Group, develops seniors-only properties ranging from independent living for middle-income residents to assisted living facilities with specialty programs for Alzheimer’s patients. The Shelter Group, which manages all the properties it develops, owns primarily multifamily housing, with about 4,000 seniors housing units. Most of the seniors housing properties are located in the Mid-Atlantic area, with some properties in Florida and Missouri. The company plans to continue its growth primarily through acquisitions and some new development.