Why One Single-site Senior Living Operator Branched Into Home Care

South Carolina-based senior living provider Cumberland Village recently launched a home care program to serve more older adults outside of traditional senior living as external growth remains tough to notch.

The company’s new program, Cumberland Village at Home, is aimed at helping older adults stay in their homes and receive care and assistive services in their current residences.

The new program is divided into two tiers: Cumberland Cares, which provides personal care, assistance with activities of daily living and medication management; and Cumberland Concierge, which helps with errands, housekeeping, meal preparation and transportation.

Cumberland Village is a senior living community with 48 independent living patio homes, 95 units of traditional independent living and a 24-unit assisted living segment. The company’s ownership group, Golden Bell Senior Living, is preparing to add additional independent living, with the potential to grow beyond a single-site location in the future, according to CEO Gerald Swiacki and President Michael Rabold.

Swiacki joined the senior living industry in 2002 and was previously an investment banker at the company now known as Lument. Golden Bell Senior Living was founded in 2022 and the company began operating in early 2023.

Residents at Cumberland Village have access to a range of typical senior living amenities, along with a wellness trainer and wellness coordinator to help older adults live fulfilling lives in retirement. The site includes eight acres of developable land still available for new growth.

The expansion will help Cumberland Village evolve to meet the growing demand for cottage homes and independent living apartments, with a new memory care and assisted living component planned also for the campus to reposition the existing footprint. 

Swiacki described the community as “charming [and] southern-style” and said the repositioning effort will help meet incoming demand.

“Cumberland Village and the ability to offer independent living, assisted living, memory care and cottages is a product going forward that we prefer over a standalone assisted living building in a major densely populated city environment,” Rabold said.

The company is “focused on perfecting our operating model” alongside the repositioning effort to set the stage for future growth. Adding the home care program will help provide a security blanket for older adults seeking to remain independent, with support available to them as their acuity needs change.

“We really saw a need not only from our residents on campus, but we saw a need beyond that,” Rabold added. “This is allowing us to address those needs while they’re in the home.”

The home care effort is directed at reaching older adults sooner and serving more older adults while familiarizing them with the Cumberland Village brand so that when a move happens, they are familiar with the company’s care staff and practices, Swiacki noted.

Using technology in operations, specifically ambient monitoring, has helped staff better monitor resident acuity and adapt to the evolving care needs of older adults, Swiacki said.

The company launched the home care program earlier this month and seeks to capitalizing on the services provided by third-party home care providers by bringing them under the Golden Bell banner.

“We’re not looking to micromanage or control every aspect of our business, but we felt it was a really important part of our business and our reputation to associate with a home care business like Cumberland Village to leverage its reputation, maintain our quality standards and ensure our care providers are nurturing and attentive,” Rabold said.

The program “allows for flexibility” for older adults to remain in their preferred living settings longer, with more services added. This is in direct response to the need to provide more wellness-based services to improve the quality of lifadded.

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