Lexington expanding assisted living in Lombard, Elmhurst

Lombard and Elmhurst will have more room for senior citizens needing assisted living after giving Lexington Square facilities in both towns permission to add new units.

Lexington Square of Lombard received village board approval to increase its senior housing units to 300 from 271 and Lexington Square of Elmhurst gained city council permission to offer 390 units instead of 362.

The extra capacity will help Lexington Health Network serve residents who are often waiting until later in life to leave their homes and are choosing assisted living over nursing home environments, said Sherry Kizer, Lexington Square’s vice president for senior living services.

It also will allow the Elmhurst location to offer assisted living for the first time.

“Assisted living’s popularity has taken off because people still have this stigma of nursing homes as being institutional and sterile,” Kizer said.

Many adults promise they won’t move their parents into nursing homes, she said. But if older adults need help with daily tasks, “kids can keep their promise but still get their parents the care they need” by choosing assisted living, Kizer said.

Assisted living’s popularity also is increasing because older adults are staying in their homes longer instead of selling them in a down market, Kizer said.

“By the time they move into Lexington (their life is) not really as independent as it used to be,” Kizer said. “It’s more supervised independence.”

The average age of residents at Lexington Square of Lombard is 87, while residents at Lexington Square of Elmhurst average 89 years old — up from an average age of 72 among Elmhurst Lexington residents in 1991, according to presentations the health network made to each town’s elected officials.

At Lexington Square’s assisted living centers, a nursing station is staffed to provide care 24/7, common rooms and spaces for dining and activities are on each floor and each apartment is relatively small, Kizer said.

The extra units at each location won’t come from building an addition, but from converting larger, independent living apartments into smaller assisted living units, she said. The conversion process will begin in the next few months.