DOWAGIAC — As members of the Dowagiac Rotary Club ate a lunch of roast beef and mashed potatoes Thursday, they learned about a Cass County service that they may one day benefit from.

Larena Cox, medical data specialist for the Timbers of Cass County, presented to the Dowagiac Rotary Club Thursday afternoon. The Timbers of Cass County is a nursing and rehabilitation facility located in Dowagiac. During her presentation, Cox spoke about what the Timbers of Cass County is and addressed specific questions that Rotary Club members had.

“I hate it when we are referred to as a nursing home,” Cox said. “What we are is a skilled nursing facility.”

When Cox asked the room what fears would they have if there were to enter a nursing facility, one Rotary member said she feared that she would never leave and would die before getting better.

Cox said that fear was not unusual and is common among patients to the point where it can deteriorate the wellness process. However, Cox said that it was a fear people should leave when they walk into the doors of The Timbers of Cass County, as the facility is not meant to be treated as a traditional nursing home.

“Ultimately, our goal at The Timbers is to get people in, get them the help they need and get them home,” she said. “Our goal is to get people functional and to get them to a level of function that is as close as possible to whatever it was before the event that brought them into us.”

The average length of stay for a patient at The Timbers of Cass County is 20 to 30 days, and the facility has had patients as young as 30 and 40 years old.

Cox said that the goal of The Timbers of Cass County is not to have patients stay in the facility forever, though the facility does house between 55 and 66 long-term care residents.

Cox said that The Timbers of Cass County has a number of trained specialists to help people get to the level of wellness they need to be at.

Cox said that every patient is treated holistically, meaning that the facility tries to treat every aspect of the patient from the physical to the mental and emotional. She said she believes that the facility does good, important work in Cass County.

“We try not to look at people as just a name or someone who has had a stroke or a heart attack,” Cox said. “We try to look at every aspect of their life and who they are. Every person is different. Each person has a different story, a different diet, different preferences, different fears. We are not just trying to try whatever it is that brings them there. We have an entire team to treat the whole individual.”