YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Mahoning Valley assisted and independent living centers have added amenities to meet seniors’ changing needs and expectations.
More than 2 million Ohioans are 65 and older and that number is expected to peak in 2030, according to the Nursing Homes in Ohio profile, released by the Ohio Department of Aging in February.
Yet there were fewer licensed nursing home beds in 2023 – 85,000 across the state – than in 1999 when the number hit 97,500.
Nursing home operators at Briarfield, Shepherd of the Valley, Inspira and the Ursuline Sisters Senior Care offer more options for seniors.
Shepherd of the Valley will offer 12 villas beginning this month in its latest community at 600 Legacy Lane in Salem. Once completed, the community will include both independent and assisted living options, as well as many amenities for seniors, according to Rich Limongi, Shepherd of the Valley CEO. A Lutheran Retirement Services organization, Shepherd of the Valley operates senior living locations in Howland, Boardman, Liberty and Poland.
Limongi says seniors expect amenities and access to a healthy lifestyle, technology like telehealth, transportation to go to the grocery store, the theater and out to lunch with their friends.
“Retirement living has really changed for the better, I think,” Limongi says.
With DeSalvo Construction Co. of Hubbard as the contractor and Baker Bednar Snyder & Associates of Warren serving as the architects, the newest community will eventually have 36 condos and 52 independent apartments, as well as 36 assisted living units on the property.
The campus will include a clubhouse, a restaurant with a lounge, a full gym and sauna, a theater/lecture hall, a library, an open market and an outdoor amphitheater. To promote health and wellness, amenities will include pickleball courts, bocce courts, a dog park, raised gardens and a playground for when younger family members visit.
Because residents may need to downsize or require additional space for seasonal items, storage units will be available to rent, Limongi says.
He anticipates the phased project will be completed in late 2027 or early 2028.
The 12 villas in the early phase will range from 980- to 1,400 square feet and most have two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, kitchen, family room and full laundry. Larger units include a den.
“We already have some people committed,” Limongi says about the response to the new villas. “In really getting to know the town, the city of Salem has been very, very welcoming.”
Shepherd opened a new 21-bed memory care unit at the Poland campus earlier this year, which included an outdoor memory garden and walking path, enclosed so dementia patients can safely enjoy fresh air and sensory stimulation like water fountains, herbs and flowers.
Within three weeks, Limongi says 12 people were admitted to the unit.
Another specialty care unit is on the Boardman campus, where residents requiring dialysis services can receive it in house.
In addition to Shepherd’s senior living locations, Limongi says the organization has seen an uptick in home health services. At Home with Shepherd assists between 150 and 180 clients weekly within or outside of Shepherd communities.
“We developed our home health agency with the idea in mind that we want to let people that live within our communities age in place as long as they can, whether they move into our independent apartments or our condos, even our assisted living people,” Limongi says.
And if a resident needs short-term rehab, the goal is to provide consistent therapy and follow them home to their own communities, he adds.
While home health programs and healthcare providers receiving Medicaid reimbursement through the state recently have come under fire for billing issues, Limongi says it has not affected Shepherd’s home healthcare program as much because they are diversified with several different types of payors.
Inspira Navigating Challenges
Joe Cilone, co-owner and president of Inspira Health Group, says funding challenges present hurdles for elder care facilities.
He refers to a September 2025 Ohio Supreme Court ruling that determined Medicaid was using the wrong formula, shorting many providers by hundreds of millions of dollars. Since the ruling, state legislators have created a $875 million relief reimbursement package for those nursing homes left shortchanged.
Cilone lauds state legislators Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield; Rep. Monica Robb-Blasdel, R-New Waterford; and Rep. Tex Fischer R-Canfield, with helping to get the million relief package.
“They were very instrumental in helping us get that over the finish line,” Cilone says.
As of press time, the bill awaits Gov. Mike DeWine’s signature. “It was a big victory for the industry as a whole.”
Inspira operates 370 beds at six locations across the Mahoning Valley, including Caprice Healthcare Center in North Lima, Calcutta Healthcare Center and Elmwood Assisted Living in Hubbard.
Cilone says Ohio had needed to boost reimbursement as other surrounding states have much higher and better Medicaid reimbursement. Despite the relief package, Cilone says in budgets going forward, lawmakers and Ohio health care advocates will have to continue fighting for those dollars.
“If you look at the statistics,” Cilone says. “Ohio is up at the top in quality and we’re in the bottom on reimbursement. Those are things we’re really pushing hard to fix so that we can continue to provide the great care we give our residents in our facilities.”
Additionally, staffing is always difficult, Cilone says, adding all the senior health communities in the area compete for the same talented people.
Cilone says the partners at Inspira live locally and work to make sure the facilities are to the same standards as they want for their own families. And although Cilone has been with the company 30 years and has lots of seasoned employees at Inspira, the company uses AI to help them track patient care and charts to give the best care possible to their residents.
Inspira offers full-scale long-term care, skilled care, ventilator services and in-house dialysis. Additionally, having their own pharmacy, therapy company and wound care helps with continuity throughout the process.
While staffing can always be tough in the industry, Cilone says Inspira has a solid core of people in place.
“We have a lot of very committed, dedicated people that make us exceptional,” Cilone says.
Ursuline Sisters Senior Living
Taylor Cene-Acharya, executive director of Ursuline Sisters Senior Living, says the motherhouse was once home to between 100 to 200 sisters, where all the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown lived as young women to learn and take their vows. And then as they aged or had health challenges, they would come back for younger nuns to help care for them.
But a few years ago, Sister Mary McCormick and the leadership team made the decision to renovate and open the former motherhouse up as assisted living for the public and so the sisters could all age together.
“They saw the changing needs of the community and a lot of religious communities in the area. Unfortunately their mother houses have had to close and the sisters have had to be separated… I believe their goal was to keep the sisters together as they continue to age,” Cene-Acharya says.
The original mother house, which has served the Ursuline Sisters well for many years, required updating and minor renovations to add the amenities not only the sisters would need as they aged, but others might expect who would come to stay.
There are now 44 assisted living rooms, including 10 memory care rooms and the facility is licensed for 56 beds, so couples can come in together. The rooms are suites with private bathrooms, walk-in showers, a mini tea kitchen, storage and call systems.
The facility also features an Olympic-size swimming therapy pool, Silver Sneakers fitness classes, a patio with herbs and flowers, a beauty salon and spaces for activities and visiting. Stained glass windows in the cafeteria came from the different convents where the sisters had served. Mosaics in memory of Sister Alice Marie Morley, who created them and also was an art teacher at Ursuline High School, also decorate the wall.
In the renovated chapel, mass is held three days a week, evening prayers twice a week and a morning rosary once a week. All are open to the public.
While the community is closed to new novices now, there remains an associate program for those individuals who want to continue the nuns’ mission.
Of the 23 remaining sisters, 19 live in the motherhouse, most in a private wing. Some have chosen to live in the general population areas of the facility. Nurses are on staff from at least from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and sometimes overnight, along with 24 hour caregivers. Dr. Cynthia Kravec has an office in the facility where she sees patients every other week.
Cene-Acharya says besides making physical changes to the 120,000 square foot facility, the staff, instead of the sisters, now handle the cleaning, cooking and operations.
“With the sisters, cleanliness is Godliness, so our goal is to keep up that standard for them and we have a wonderful staff here who work really hard,” Cene-Acharya says.
Independent living apartments opened 10 years ago and have a four-year wait list. Cene-Acharya says that is when the sisters recognized the need for more senior care in the area.
“When I’m taking people around, I feel like the prayers of the sisters are just infused in the walls,” Cene-Acharya says. “They’re part of the foundation of this and we have pictures in the archives of the sisters building this building and working with the contractors while in their habits. They had the forethought that the community will need this and will need us and so they built this beautiful home for all of us.”
Most of the advertising has been done word of mouth, Cene-Acharya says, adding you do not have to be a woman or Catholic to choose to live in the facility, just have a willingness to be respectful and celebrate the faith of the sisters, their traditions and their mission.
“We’ve been blessed with wonderful residents and wonderful families that have been able to join us in the process,” Cene-Acharya says, adding Briarfield helped provide answers as they transitioned the home for its next chapter.
EDM Briarfield
Diane and Ed Reese, co-founders of Briarfield, enjoy remaining hands-on in their 10 facilities.
Ed Reese says they are on site at least once a week and when an administrator at Briarfield Manor took a family leave of absence recently, Diane Reese says she was “invigorated” by stepping back into that day-to-day role.
Briarfield Place was named a 2025-2026 Best Short-Term Rehabilitation facility by U.S. News & World Report. And Ed Reese says all six assisted living facilities had perfect state surveys in the past year.
Briarfield Manor, an assisted living and memory care facility, is getting a refresh – wallpaper, paint, new light fixtures and landscaping – which Diane Reese says is being driven by recommendations from the residents who want it to feel more like home.
“The things happening around them, it makes them feel good about where they are,” she says.
The Reeses see two trends happening in assisted living and nursing care. Some younger people are unhealthier and require care sooner. And many older people are waiting sometimes well into their 90s before needing some assistance, while still remaining independent.
“Turning 100 used to be a milestone,” Diane Reese says. “In 2026 it is starting to be the norm… It’s refreshing to see healthier, more independent individuals in our assisted living.”
Ed Reese says the census levels of people living in their communities are back to pre-Covid levels.
It has been about two years since the Inn at Old Saybrook, a Briarfield assisted living facility in Columbiana opened. But with so many families moving to that area and Trumbull County too, Ed Reese says they are looking at additional properties for new projects in both counties, as well as a possible new facility in Mahoning County and expansion at Briarfield Place.
When and if those plans happen depends on Medicaid reimbursement rates, interest rates and construction costs.
Pictured at top: Taylor Cene-Acharya, assisted living administrator, Sister Marie Maravola, Sister Pauline Dalpe and Avery Hostetter, development and publications associate, stand in the garden area at the Ursuline Sisters Mission motherhouse.
