Memory Center Experience
Crafted with Intention
Our world‑class Memory Center is thoughtfully crafted as a walkable, dementia‑supportive town, designed to promote independence, comfort, and intuitive navigation. Every design element reinforces our commitment to dignity and meaningful engagement.
Key Design Elements
Designing this community requires a thoughtful balance of familiarity and comfort, while supporting the unique cognitive needs of individuals living with memory loss. Every design decision, from layout and lighting, to color, materials, and wayfinding, plays a critical role in promoting independence and encouraging a sense of well‑being.
Distinct neighborhood area creates a smaller community with its own unique character. This supports routine, and makes each home easier to identify.
Modeled after everyday town centers, Main Street houses familiar destinations such as:
- Main Street Market
- Home Plate Restaurant and Bar
- Salon & Spa
- CommonThreads Club Room
These recognizable venues create a sense of normalcy and make wayfinding intuitive. Residents maintain familiarity consistent with the life they are continuing to live.
Our campus layout includes purposeful, stimulating locations that encourage independence and daily engagement. Organizing services around clear, labeled destinations helps residents build routine and maintain orientation.
Different color schemes, window shapes distinct to each building and natural landmarks act as memory anchors, helping residents navigate using visual recognition rather than short‑term memory.
Daily Life & Engagement
Daily life at the Marlin and Doris Thomas Memory Center is designed to be familiar, meaningful, and empowering. Rather than a traditional care setting, our space offers a vibrant neighborhood where residents live life at their own pace and are supported to enjoy the routines that bring them comfort.
Each resident lives in a private, thoughtfully designed household that mirrors the warmth of home. Small household groups empower residents to form close connections while maintaining independence in a setting that feels natural and comforting.
Residents wake according to their own routines, enjoy breakfast prepared in their household kitchen, and participate in morning activities that suit their interests such as gardening, stretching, reading, or simply visiting with neighbors.
Every part of the community encourages engagement and choice. Strolling the walking paths, visiting the café, attending a music session, helping with household tasks, or joining a woodworking or art workshop—residents choose how to spend their time. Activities are intentionally designed to spark joy, support cognitive and physical abilities, and promote social connection.
The Memory Center provides:
- Opportunities daily for social, recreational, cognitive, spiritual, educational, and engagement activities
- Programming that is appropriate for residents’ cognitive and functional abilities
- Meaningful opportunities accessible to residents living in a secured memory care setting
- Connections that reduce isolation and promote wellbeing
The MDTMC includes familiar community spaces like Main Street Market, Salon and Spa, outdoor gardens, and gathering spots where residents can meet friends, enjoy events, or participate in community traditions. These spaces encourage autonomy and allow residents to engage with life in ways that feel natural and fulfilling.
Our secure, easy-to-navigate layout gives residents the ability to explore freely and confidently. Thoughtful design empowers residents to move about independently while ensuring 24/7 safety through discreet, supportive oversight from trained team members.
Care is woven into daily living, not imposed on it. Our team members build meaningful relationships with each resident, learning their personal stories, routines, and preferences to provide support that is individualized and respectful.
Meals
At MDTMC, we believe that mealtimes are about more than just nourishment, they are an opportunity for connection, comfort, and community. Residents enjoy three delicious and nutritious meals each day, served family-style at the dining room tables within each household.
Our Registered Dietitian carefully plans menus in accordance with each Resident’s medical needs and physician’s orders. Whenever possible, individual food preferences are honored within any necessary dietary restrictions. We support the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ belief that a liberalized diet can enhance both quality of life and nutritional well-being. Our goal is always to provide the least restrictive diet while supporting each Resident’s health and enjoyment of food.
Several dining venues are located at the MDTMC.
- Home Plate, our sports-themed barbecue restaurant is located in the Town Center. Home Plate is dementia-friendly and we encourage family and friends to dine with Residents here.
- Food for Thought, our brain-healthy café is located in the community accessible portion of the MDTMC and open to guests.
Community Accessible
This portion of the memory center is designed to welcome the public and foster meaningful connection beyond residential care. These shared spaces support education, engagement, and outreach, providing opportunities for learning, gathering, and collaboration that promote awareness of cognitive disease. By opening the center to the community, we strengthen our mission to create a community that prioritizes brain health.
Among Friends via Willow Valley is an Adult Day Social Club designed to foster peer-to peer connection wellness and belonging to Residents and neighbors living with dementia. Our programs are thoughtfully designed to inspire joy, promote physical and cognitive wellness, and encourage meaningful social engagement. Registration opening soon.
Included Services:
- Weekday social engagement opportunities
- Individualized Care Plans
- Nutritious meal and snacks
- Support with activities of daily living
- Medication administration
- Connection to various services within Willow Valley Communities
MDTMC understands that with a neuro cognitive diagnosis comes a wide variety of symptoms that can be managed with exercise and applied neurologic treatments. The MDTMC offers specialized neurologic brain-based training, some of which helps enhance cognitive health. Using techniques that stimulate brain function and are rooted in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, our trainers help individuals to discover how movement can be used for pain relief and cognitive wellbeing.
As part of the community accessible amenities offered at the MDTMC, the NeuroFit Studio implements progressive neurological approaches to daily group fitness initiatives. Classes are designed for improved neurological function, slowing the progression of aging and dementia-related symptoms, with a social, and resident-specific lens. Residents are encouraged to engage in personal training at NeuroFit as a supplemental support to their lifestyle upon receiving individual evaluation.
The Brain Tech Center is an experience designed to promote awareness, understanding, empathy, and brain healthy habits. In this space, people will have the opportunity to interact with technology designed to support cognitive wellbeing and enhance their learning about neurocognitive functions.
Information and support networks that help inform your journey living with dementia or caring for your loved one living with a cognitive impairment diagnosis.
Food for Thought is a culinary venue serving menu items that align with the MIND diet. The MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) diet combines the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets to promote brain health and slow cognitive decline. The MIND diet suggests eating leafy greens, berries, nuts, whole grains, and fish and limiting unhealthy options such as red meat, butter, cheese, and fried or fast food. The goal of the diet is to protect the brain from neurodegenerative diseases, like dementia, by providing antioxidant-rich nutrients that aid brain function and reduce inflammation. All of the menu items at Food for Thought align with the MIND diet and Willow Valley Communities’ efforts to support a community that better understands and prioritizes brain health.
An on-site clinical partnership with Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health (PMLGH) to provide assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of individuals with cognitive concerns. This is an extension of PMLGH’s Alzheimer’s and Memory Clinic. In addition to individual care, PMLGH has partnered with us to offer greater access to education and research. The Assessment Center also hosts a blood biobank where Residents, guests, and patients can voluntarily participate in and contribute to ground-breaking research studies. Learn more
Share This Page
Contact The Marlin and Doris Thomas Memory Center
"*" indicates required fields
