A worker at the state's new veterans nursing home spent a few minutes on a recent afternoon gently rubbing a frail resident's white hair.
The elderly veteran had parked his wheelchair beside a glass door to stare outside as a breeze blew across the 31 acres that two months ago became the home of the Arkansas State Veterans Home at North Little Rock.
It was a small gesture that neither the man nor the young nursing assistant probably thought twice about, but it's the type of thing that the facility's administrators say makes it different.
They say it doesn't feel like a nursing home at all. Only the old men in wheelchairs and young women in scrubs give it away.
There is no cafeteria and no endless hallways lined with cramped bedrooms.
Instead, there are cottages with open floor plans and workers like Raven Russell, who finished comforting the resident peering out the door Wednesday and asked another what he'd like for dinner.
Russell has worked in other long-term care facilities, but this one, she said, is special.
"I get to know all of them -- all their different needs and tics -- like the back of my hand," she said.
Russell is a certified nursing assistant, but at the North Little Rock veterans home nursing assistants do much more than administer direct care. They cook, clean and launder. They're also encouraged to build relationships with the veterans, said Lindsey Clyburn, the home's administrator.
The new $24 million home, located at 2401 John Ashley Drive in North Little Rock, marks the agency's return to providing long-term care for aging and disabled veterans in central Arkansas. In 2012, the state -- home to an aging veteran population of about 250,000 -- closed the Little Rock Veterans Home, located since 1980 in the long-closed school for the blind on Charles Bussey Avenue, due to mismanagement, funding shortfalls and poor living conditions.
The North Little Rock facility, thus far, has been just the opposite, the veterans who live there said.
"Ever since I moved here, it's like I was uplifted to a new world," said Joseph Dickerson, an 83-year-old Korean War veteran. "Everybody is so nice, so friendly, so clean."
Dickerson led an infantry squad during the Korean War. Now, he leads the group of eight elderly veterans at the new veterans home, serving as president of the resident council. The council already has big plans for the facility. The veterans hope to build an elevated vegetable garden and a playground for their grandchildren. Clyburn plans to secure grants and donations to fund those projects.
As Dickerson discussed his first two months at the facility, five other veterans rolled their wheelchairs and scooted their walkers beside him. Each used a steady stream of superlatives to describe their new home.
"I wouldn't change it if I could," said 94-year-old Curtis Floyd, who stormed the shore of Normandy in 1944.
"It's like a country club," said Sam Johnson, a 67-year-old U.S. Army veteran.
It isn't a country club, but the home does sit on the grounds of the former Emerald Park Golf Course. Clyburn, whom the veterans speak glowingly about, takes new residents on a golf-cart tour of the property's rolling hills and three lakes.
Eight "Hero Homes" are spread across the property. Each has the capacity for 12 residents.
Wood floors, stacked-stone pillars and faux fireplaces give each home a cottage feel. The veterans in each home share an open living, dining and kitchen area, but each person has a private bedroom and bathroom.
The "small-home" design is intended to create a homier atmosphere than traditional nursing homes. Only two other facilities in Arkansas use a similar approach.
Dickerson had lived at a traditional facility since his wife died in 2009. After several months at the veterans home, he said he wouldn't go back.
One of the biggest benefits is how much his large family enjoys visiting. There's lots of space for the children to play outside, and the sometimes foul odors and institutional feel of typical nursing homes are nonexistent.
"It's just like they're visiting you at home," Dickerson said.
Curtis, the World War II veteran, had lived with his son Alan's family for the past decade. He tried a traditional nursing home once, but it didn't work out. Curtis, like the other residents at the veterans home, is physically limited by age, but his mind remains sharp.
"He stayed with us as long as he physically could," Alan Curtis said, adding that the veterans home "is wonderful for people like my dad."
Floyd Curtis wants to see as many former military members take advantage of the new facility as possible.
"The only question is: Why are we moving so slow?" Curtis said. "Let's get this place full of veterans."
Clyburn said the facility will start to fill the remaining 88 openings soon. In the next few weeks, the agency will request an inspection to receive certification to begin receiving payments from those on Medicare and Medicaid. Soon after, it will request a second certification from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, so it may receive veterans who receive care through the VA.
Those wishing to apply may do so at the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs website: veterans.arkansas.gov.
Metro on 04/10/2017