As dementia care needs continue to grow, so does this Wichita company

Three decades after opening one of its first residential dementia-care properties, ComfortCare Homes has expanded and completely remodeled it.

“We spent a tremendous amount of money to totally revamp that house,” said chairman Doug Stark.

The property at 441 S. Morningside near Kellogg and Woodlawn is now almost 2,000 square feet larger and can accommodate 10 residents instead of seven. There is a new living room, dining room and kitchen.

There will be a grand opening at noon on Jan. 31.

Stark said when his family opened the business 30 years ago, it was the first to offer a residential model of dementia care in Kansas. Now, the industry has a name for it: home plus.

The company has five of its original homes.

“We call them traditional homes,” Stark said.

ComfortCare buys large ranch homes in upscale neighborhoods and converts them for dementia care.

“That was our MO for many, many years,” Stark said.

Now, it also designs new buildings made to look like traditional homes.

It has two of those homes near 29th and Tyler in the Fossil Rim neighborhood, and a third will open there in about six weeks.

“So now we kind of have a campus there,” Stark said.

The home designs include two chimneys and three garage doors like other homes in the neighborhood, although the doors are either decorative or hide storage and offices.

Stark said there’s been a waiting list for those homes in the two and a half years since they opened.

He said people always ask him why it seems there are so many more people with Alzheimer’s disease today.

“Our population is absolutely aging,” Stark said.

He said one in 10 people age 65 have it, and more than 43% of 85-year-olds have it or some form of dementia.

Stark said his company tries to make homes as comforting as possible for residents, who can bring their own furniture and pets.

“We’re big on animals. It’s very therapeutic.”

ComfortCare has nine homes in Wichita and two in Newton.

Stark said Valley Center wants the homes, too, as does the new Heritage development in Andover. He said those are both possibilities.

“Quite honestly, we’ll probably do something like that.”

First, though, he said that “we probably need to take a breath.”

“It’s a lot of energy opening up a new space.”

This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 12:31 PM.