Mr. Solden has been involved in fifteen different senior living communities as either an owner, developer, manager, Regional Manager or Executive Director. He had been a licensed nursing home administrator and has held over a dozen AFC or HFA licenses in the State of Michigan. He has been an administrator in many of his communities over the last 29 years, and served as the Chair of the Michigan Center for Assisted Living.

He is the founder and co-owner of Vibrant Life Communities which currently owns and manages ten senior care buildings on four properties in Michigan: New Friends Memory Care, Kalamazoo, a 60-unit memory care community; The Lodge of Durand, Durand, Michigan, a 57-unit AL/MC community; Vibrant Life Senior Living, Temperance, Michigan, a 73-unit AL/MC with three Lodges; and Vibrant Life Senior Living, Superior Township, a 72 AL/MC community which opened in 2019. Mr. Solden stepped down as a Managing Member of Vibrant Life Communities in 2020 to pursue other projects.

Prior to his founding Vibrant Life Communities, Mr. Solden and Solden Development was the founder and co-owner of University Living, a 75-unit AL community in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 2006, AARP announced it as one of the ten most innovative AL communities in the United States. Solden Development also was a primary developer of My Doctor’s Inn, a 100-unit HFA in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Solden Development has also created two other unique communities, Hope Landing, a 30-unit rural assisted living community in Charlotte, Michigan; and New Friends Memory Care, a 60-unit memory care community in Kalamazoo, Michigan (major re-development). New Friends Memory Care is currently a part of Vibrant Life Communities.

Mr. Solden has created a culture change philosophy entitled, “Living with Assistance,” which focuses on providing residents a meaningful and fulfilling life, while any care needed is professionally provided in the background.

Mr. Solden has been active in the state and national assisted living industry. He was a former Board Member of NCAL, the National Center for Assisted Living , and currently sits on the national Workplace Issues Sub-committee. He is a Past Chair of the Michigan Center for Assisted Living (2005-2007) and was a Board Member from 2003 until 2010, and currently sits on its Regulatory Committee. In 2003 Mr. Solden was awarded the President’s Award from the Michigan Center for Assisted Living, for outstanding work in the field of assisted living. He was awarded the “Top Gun” award from the Vigilan Corporation for excellence in assisted living development.  Mr. Solden has testified for the Michigan State Senate and Legislature on senior health care issues. Mr. Solden has spoken throughout the country and frequently writes on senior health care issues. 

Mr. Solden has been a leader in the assisted living field during this Covid-19 crisis. At Vibrant Life, he spearheaded the Vibrant Life Covid-19 Infection Committee and task force. Vibrant Life has consistently been ahead of the field during this virus pandemic. It was one of the first senior communities to test residents in all their communities.  Vibrant Life has also created Covid-19 units in its buildings and has been successful in helping stop the spread of Covid-19. In Shiawassee County, Mr. Solden created an innovative coalition between its senior communities, physicians, local hospitals, and local health departments to enact pre-testing, and subsequent monitoring of Covid-19 positive residents. These coalitions helped prevent the spread of the virus to others throughout the community. 

As a musician, Mr. Solden produced and recorded a music video entitle, Don’t Define me, Just Remind Me, which destigmatizes dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, and achieved national recognition. It was performed with a dementia choir he created in one of the Vibrant Life communities. Mr. Solden also created a Public Service Announcement (PSA) music video entitled, “If You Don’t Get It, You Might Spread It,” helping spread the message of hand-washing and social distancing during the Coronavirus Pandemic.  He frequently plays music in his senior communities.  

Mr. Solden is a professional speaker/presenter on senior living issues. He has presented at numerous conferences for the Michigan Center for Assisted Living, the National Center for Assisted living, been the Keynote speaker at the Vermont Health Care Association, the Senior Housing Annual Forum, and spoken on senior health care issues in front of the Michigan State Senate. (see Presentations).

Depending on your needs, Creative Senior Solutions has established a network of senior care businesses and professionals who work together with us to solve your specific needs.  As we provide the core consulting and oversite of your project, we will partner up with other project managers, contractors, engineers, architects, and referral agencies to find the right solutions to your senior living situation in our changing world.

From multi-million dollar projects to individuals needing personal care,

Creative Senior Solutions will find the solution for you.

Because you are in control. 

Creative Senior Solutions Principals Dean Solden, Jeffrey Wilcox, and Lyle Robinnete have over seventy years of experience in the senior living, assisted living and memory care field. They have urban, suburan and rural experiences, and have operated nineten properties with over thirty buildings. They have expertise in development, management, finance, human resources, marketing, IT, life enrichment and all aspects of the senior living industry. They all have a passion for the senior living industry, and the people who live and work at home or in senior communities, and look forward to being a part of the new future of senior living.