EPISODE 51: Understanding Independent Living — A Conversation with Tamara Fielding of Northridge Senior Living

Episode 51: Understanding Independent Living — A Conversation with Tamara Fielding of Northridge Senior Living

When most people think about senior living options, they picture assisted living or memory care. But independent living is a category all its own — and for the right person, it might be the most practical, affordable, and fulfilling move they can make. In this episode, Jamie Callahan sits down with Tamara Fielding of Northridge Senior Living, a family-owned community in Southern Oregon with roots stretching back to the very first assisted living facility built in the region. Tamara brings decades of experience, a deeply personal connection to the work, and a refreshingly honest perspective on what independent living actually looks like day to day.

From breaking down the real cost comparison between renting an apartment and moving into independent living, to explaining how in-community caregiving can be a fraction of the price of in-home care, this conversation is packed with practical information that families and seniors alike need to hear. Jamie and Tamara also dig into what makes Northridge stand out — from staff members with over 20 years of tenure, to a pet-friendly culture that has allowed residents to live out their final years alongside the animals they love.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The key differences between independent living and assisted living, explained in plain language
• Why independent living can actually cost less than renting your own apartment when you factor in utilities, meals, and housekeeping
• How in-community caregiving works — and why it's often significantly cheaper than hiring an agency caregiver for your own home
• Why family-owned communities like Northridge tend to outperform corporate-run facilities in care quality and staff retention
• The important role pets, social connection, and community activities play in senior wellbeing
• How Northridge handles aging in place and what families should know about planning ahead
• Contact information for Northridge Senior Living and how to schedule a tour

Whether you're a senior exploring your options, an adult child trying to help a parent make a transition, or simply someone who wants to understand the senior living landscape before the need arises, this episode will give you a much clearer picture of what independent living can offer. Northridge Senior Living can be reached at 541-779-6943, and Team Senior is always just a phone call away at 541-295-8230.

At Team Senior™, our mission is to guide you and support you through the maze of Southern Oregon Long-Term Care.

📞 For Team Senior resources, call: 541-295-8230

Or visit our website for more information: https://www.teamsenior.org/

Transcript

Team Senior Podcast Independent Living, Family Legacy, and Community: A Conversation with Tamara Fielding of Northridge Senior Living

JAMIE: Hi, this is Jamie Callahan with the Team Senior Podcast. Our goal is to simplify aging. Society grooms us to plan for retirement, but what about life beyond retirement — where the rubber meets the road? Perhaps you've had a stroke, or you've been diagnosed with cancer, or maybe you're forgetting things and now you have dementia. That's our area of expertise, and we are here to share our insight. And now, the Team Senior Podcast.

Hi, this is Jamie Callahan, and I am in the studio today with Tamara Fielding — someone I have known for many years — and I am excited for her to introduce herself to you and tell you a little bit about what she does.

TAMARA: Hi, I'm Tamara Fielding from Northridge Senior Living. We have been in the senior business of taking care of people since I was five years old. My parents bought the first nursing home here in Medford. My mom had actually been raised in nursing homes her whole life because her mom loved to do nursing homes, so it has been in our family for many years.

JAMIE: I know it's a family business, and I love that. I love going in there — your dad is there, your sisters are there. It's amazing.

TAMARA: We're just all right there, and it's just been a blessing. So we bought the nursing home, and we had that for quite a few years, and then we built the first assisted living in Southern Oregon.

JAMIE: I don't know if you knew it was the first.

TAMARA: I did not.

JAMIE: Yeah. So Jackson House opened right after you.

TAMARA: And Karen Brown Wilson, who built and designed Jackson House — which is now Suncrest Place — helped us design ours.

JAMIE: Oh my gosh, what a history.

TAMARA: Yeah. She opened just a few months after we did, but we were the first ones. We ran that for almost 20 years, except for the Almeda Fire.

JAMIE: Yeah, that was a terrible tragedy.

TAMARA: Yeah. But now we have Northridge Senior Living, which has been an adjustment because assisted living is all hands-on care and you're right there. Independent living is different — they don't really need you. They just need their food and their housekeeping and...

JAMIE: But we have a lot of fun, right? It's so different. You guys are a very fun community, and I want to dive into that independent living piece.

First, I want to highlight that Northridge is unique because they are family-owned. What we see with organizations in Southern Oregon that provide assisted living, independent living, and memory care is that the ones that do the absolute best job are the ones that are involved and integrated into their community — not a corporation pulling strings from another state. And I will say the Fielding family, the Northridge family, does an absolutely remarkable job of this.

TAMARA: Thank you.

JAMIE: You're so welcome. Tamara and all of them have these natural talents. Tamara, for example, is a singer, and it's not uncommon to see her at the piano playing and singing alongside a whole bunch of seniors in their community.

TAMARA: And my dad plays too. He has a little addiction — we have eight pianos now.

JAMIE: I did not know that. I did not know that.

So let's talk about the term independent living. I want to talk about how it differs from assisted living. You touched on it a little bit earlier, but can you go more in depth on that?

TAMARA: Yeah, so independent living is pretty much where they can step out of their house and come into a place where they don't have to worry about the yard work, and they don't have to worry about making all their meals, and they don't have to worry about a lot of the bills. We pay the utilities, cable, phone, and internet, and that covers pretty much most of their bills. And they don't really need help — they just want to be in a place with other people.

JAMIE: Understood. And so then assisted living is where they need help.

TAMARA: Some of them don't need as much, but assisted livings usually have different levels of care, going up until almost hospice. They're there to help you go to the toilet, get assistance in bathing, and medications — that's the biggest one.

JAMIE: Yeah, we see a lot of that. So to be clear, independent living is where you are still fully independent — you're able to essentially do everything for yourself. In fact, many people who live in independent living are still driving. They're still working.

TAMARA: They're still working, a wide variety of things.

JAMIE: Yeah. I often describe it this way: the only difference between having your own apartment in an apartment complex and living in independent living is that when you live in independent living, your door opens to the inside. So you're protected from being exposed to the outside world, which is very important for our aging population. They want to feel safe, and they want to know that no one is going to come to their house and break in, or knock on their door and have it be a stranger that makes them uncomfortable. That's never going to happen when you're living in independent living.

But behind the door where you live in your apartment, you have a kitchenette, oftentimes a bedroom and a living room, and your own private bathroom. You're able to eat the meals provided by the community — which are included in your rent — or you're able to make your own meals. You're able to go out to eat. You are completely independent. You're just living in a setting where, rather than your door opening to the outside world, it opens to the inside of a building.

TAMARA: Yes, and they feel much safer.

JAMIE: Much safer. I like that. I haven't heard it described that way before and I like it. I'm going to use that.

And Tamara also touched on the fact that independent living communities pay your electricity, cable, and all of those things — but I want to clarify that a little bit. It sounded like maybe the community is paying those bills on your behalf. The truth is, when you pay rent in independent living — let's say it's $2,500 a month to live at Northridge — that $2,500 is inclusive of housekeeping, all of your meals, electricity, garbage, cable, all of those things.

So it's important to note here that when you look at renting an apartment right now — and we talk people through this all day, every day on the phone at Team Senior — people will call because they're either getting evicted or their house is being sold and they need to move. Depending on their age, we immediately start talking with them about independent living, because when you consider the cost these days to rent your own apartment and then on top of that pay for your food, garbage, electricity, cable, phone, and everything else — it's going to cost more than it would cost to just move into independent living.

TAMARA: Exactly. Yeah, and you don't have the safety net there either.

JAMIE: No. Yes. So one nice thing about independent living is that while they don't provide caregiving, they are staffed 24/7. So if you are a fall risk — or maybe you're not a fall risk yet, but you're starting to feel a little unstable, or your energy isn't what it used to be — by being inside an independent living community, if you end up on the floor, someone is able to access you almost immediately, rather than having to call 911, who's going to send an engine from who knows where.

What I can tell you about that whole dynamic is that those programs are called lift assist, and the fire department does not want to get your phone call when you're on the floor. They'll do it once or twice, but after that, they are going to be very upset with you.

TAMARA: Very. Very upset with you.

JAMIE: Yeah. And I think a lot of independent living communities have a call bell in the bathroom for emergencies.

TAMARA: I know we do. And Larson Creek Senior Living has pull cords in their bathrooms, so I think that's common.

JAMIE: Very common. And we are a little different because we do allow in-home caregivers to come in, and we actually have our own in-home caregivers. So we can give a pendant to residents if they get on our services, but that's a separate cost.

TAMARA: Understood.

JAMIE: And I will say most independent living communities can, to an extent, allow you to age in place — which is largely based on what they have available to you and whether they have enough caregivers to provide care. But it's also based on what you can afford, because independent living is not assisted living. They're not going to raise your independent living rate and then provide all of this caregiving. What happens is that you have to pay the caregivers independently of what you are paying for independent living.

TAMARA: Correct. You pay them separately.

JAMIE: And caregiving can get very expensive very fast.

TAMARA: Very fast. Yes.

JAMIE: We talk about this from time to time. Before COVID, it was very common for caregiving to cost about $25 an hour. After COVID, when we look at agencies and what they charge, most of them are $45 an hour. In fact, I just got a phone call a couple of weeks ago from an organization who said, "Hi, we want to introduce ourselves. We're the only caregiving agency in this certain area." And I immediately asked, "What do you charge and what are your minimums?" And they said $50 an hour — and their minimum is three or four hours.

TAMARA: Oh my goodness.

JAMIE: I'm sure there are some people that can afford that, and maybe they're doing something truly exemplary compared to other caregiving agencies. But can you imagine having to pay for someone to come into your home at $50 an hour?

TAMARA: No. I can't either.

JAMIE: And that's where moving to independent living, assisted living, memory care, or an adult foster home is much more financially feasible for people than in-home caregiving.

TAMARA: Exactly. There are some good programs though. The VA offers some good caregiving programs, and the state has some that can help if you're lower income to enable you to stay independent longer. And then of course we have our own in-home care agency that's a little more reasonable because we can meet the needs of five people in one hour compared to one person in one hour.

JAMIE: And I want to touch on that for a second, because it's really important for people to understand: if you're living in independent living, 90% of the time you can get caregiving in your apartment for way less money than you would pay for caregiving in your own home.

TAMARA: Exactly, because they can divide their time more easily.

JAMIE: Exactly. So in that scenario, here's how it looks. If you're in your own home and you're hiring a caregiver, most agencies have minimums of three or four hours. They do that because they have to cover the overhead of sending the caregiver there, paying the caregiver, making sure the caregiver has enough hours — and how many people can they realistically reach in one eight-hour day?

Where it's different in independent living is that the caregivers serving you in your apartment are likely also serving three, four, or five other people who are essentially your neighbors. So they can get around to more people in a shorter amount of time, and they oftentimes might have minimums of just 30 minutes rather than three or four hours.

TAMARA: Exactly. Yeah, it's a huge benefit.

JAMIE: In that sense, oh yeah — much different. It's nice to stay in your own home, but there are so many stresses that come with that. And like you said, you step out your door and you're in the world. But when you step out your door in independent living, you're inside and you're kind of safe from the solicitors and —

TAMARA: Just the sheer dangers of the world today.

JAMIE: Yes. And even through your phone — it's not just through your front door.

TAMARA: That is so true.

JAMIE: Can you walk us through, from your perspective, what sets your independent living community apart from others? We touched on it a little bit earlier, but can you go more in depth?

TAMARA: Again, we're family owned and operated, so that's a big one. My own mother lives in our facility. My cousin lives in our facility. My aunt and uncle live in our facility. So we're definitely family owned and operated in every sense of the word.

And a lot of our staff have been with us for a long time — one for over 22 years at Northridge, another for 11 years, and a couple at seven years. And then for the building we bought — Barnett Woods — there are two staff members who have been there 20 years, and others who have been there eight years.

JAMIE: That speaks volumes.

TAMARA: Longevity of the employees is a big one. And the residents too — we've had three residents come from our assisted living that burned, and a number of residents who have stayed with us since we bought the building.

JAMIE: Very nice.

TAMARA: And I think that makes them feel part of the family. That's what we try to do — just be there for them and make them feel like family.

JAMIE: Longevity really does make a difference, and not just where the residents are concerned but also with staffing. The staff get to know the people who live there, they know the ins and outs of everything, and I really think it gets to the root of them loving their job — which carries across to the folks who are living there.

TAMARA: Yeah. And we don't have a big turnover. I have three nieces that work there, a nephew that works there, my son that works there off and on. So we're really consistent in the staff.

JAMIE: That's awesome. That tells me I should probably have more kids so I have that labor available to me also.

TAMARA: Exactly. That's too funny.

JAMIE: Okay, so we know there's a strong sense of community at Northridge. We've established that. What do the activities and social connections look like? How do the residents stay engaged — not just with each other, but with the staff?

TAMARA: So we not only have our regular bingo and little card games and craft time — we do different country rides every week, and in the summer we go out to picnics, go to wineries, go to Seven Feathers. So we do go out in the community.

But then we also have musicians come in once to twice a week — they play different instruments. We even have an accordion player who also has an alpaca farm that we go out and visit every year for a picnic. And our biggest event is our bazaar. We've had a bazaar for the Northridge family for almost 15 years, and a lot of people get excited — they get to buy Christmas presents, and we've had vendors coming and selling at the bazaar for 15 years. So that's something that makes us a little different too. We like to bring the community in.

We have lots of kids come in and do special singing. And of course I'm a singer with the Sweet Adelines, and we've come in and sang a number of times for the residents. We just feel like it's good to bring the community in and to go out into the community — to be involved.

JAMIE: You guys are definitely very involved, and I think the entire community recognizes that. In fact, Tamara was the recipient of the Southern Oregon Community Service Award a couple of years ago, which Team Senior gives once a year to a deserving person who is truly going above and beyond, all the time.

TAMARA: Thank you.

JAMIE: You are so welcome. I want to hear a memorable story from Northridge — a moment where you can talk about not just the impact you've had on the community, but how it really gets to your heart.

TAMARA: There are so many stories. We're really pet friendly — that's a big one. There have been a lot of people who have been able to move in because of that. Right now we have a woman who has a few cats — six, maybe seven.

JAMIE: Wow.

TAMARA: And we just moved her cat house over the weekend from one apartment to another because she wanted a room that wasn't available at the time, and then it opened up and we were able to move her. I feel like pets are so important.

One gentleman was at a bigger community and they were giving him a hard time about having his pet, so he came to us. He actually passed away with us, but he was able to have his dog the whole time. He was so grateful. We helped walk his dog and just made sure he was cared for. Dogs and cats and birds and iguanas — they're family. We feel like those are so important because having pets, having plants, having your home feel like your home, even inside a facility, makes you feel more complete. You feel surrounded by love.

JAMIE: Absolutely. And there's the sheer aspect of being able to nurture something. With a pet especially, you feel that reciprocal love, which I know for seniors is really important.

TAMARA: So important.

JAMIE: Especially when it comes to social isolation. We talk about this all the time. I recently had a conversation with somebody, and one piece of it hadn't really occurred to me before. One really great thing about living in a community with a lot of different people is that you have the opportunity to have lots of different kinds of interaction.

What was brought to my attention is that many times, even if you are not alone — even if you're living in your house with a spouse who has been there with you for, say, 50 years — you love that person and they love you. You're clearly not alone. But the social isolation piece that comes into play is that they've heard all your jokes and all of your stories. So having the opportunity to be surrounded by a whole bunch of people gives you the chance to fill that cup — the desire to just chat, hang out, laugh, tell stories, and all the things. It is important to be surrounded by people.

TAMARA: Yes. And we have quite a few couples like that where one spouse will go out and do all the activities, and the other will stay in because they're not as social.

JAMIE: Opposites attract.

TAMARA: Opposites attract. And yeah — especially my dad. He doesn't live at Northridge, but he stays two nights a week with my mom. And he takes his hearing aids out a lot, so she's even lonelier.

JAMIE: Oh my gosh, yeah. I see that with people too. So I want to give you the opportunity to share with folks how to get in contact with you. If you are interested in independent living and want to check out what Northridge looks like, please reach out to Tamara. Tamara, how do we get to you?

TAMARA: You can call us at 541-779-6943 and ask for Tamara. Or I've been training my niece Cassandra — and actually I think she's fully trained now — and she does amazing tours. She's actually taken over most of those and is very good at it. She was going to come today but she's at a lunch tour. So just ask for Cassandra or Tamara.

You can also look at our website — NorthridgeSL.com, SL for Senior Living. There are beautiful pictures and you can set up a tour there. There's lots of interesting information on the website as well.

JAMIE: Yeah, Northridge has done a great job. The building they took over — Barnett Woods on Barnett Road — they did that a few years back, and they've done a magnificent job of renovating it. I would encourage you to go check it out.

And if for any reason you don't have her information or just want to ask a couple of questions and can't remember how to reach Tamara, you are always welcome to call Team Senior directly. We are so happy to get you connected. Our number is 541-295-8230. Again, 541-295-8230.

Thank you, Tamara, so much for being here. Thank you for listening to the Team Senior Podcast. We're here every week sharing new and relevant information. Remember, we're just a phone call away. Team Senior can be reached at 541-295-8230. Again, 541-295-8230. Until next time, this is Jamie Callahan.