In the blink of an eye, a person’s life can change forever.

Following a fall or a car accident, a medical emergency or a similar misfortune, people who formerly enjoyed a life of full mobility may find themselves confined to a wheelchair and needing full-time medical assistance.

People in such situations make up many of the residents at Rose Meadow Farm, a residential care facility that has operated in New Boston since 1995.

The facility is licensed by the state Department of Health and Human Services, who recently awarded them a certificate of appreciation.

Located on a former equestrian farm on Briar Hill Road, Rose Meadow Farm caters to residents 18 and older with acquired brain and spinal cord injuries.

It’s an affliction that can affect people from all walks of life, said owner Joanne Devine.

“Anyone can fall the 5 feet it takes to suffer a life-altering injury,” Devine said.

Such events are common enough that Rose Meadow Farm is set to open a second facility, located on 23 private acres of Bedford Road, three miles from its current site, to accommodate a growing number of patients needing their services.

The new building, to be called Rose Meadow Garden, will have 13 individual rooms for patients and offer the same services and programs as the 11- bedroom Rose Meadow Farm.

Like the current facility, the new building will accept residents from far-ranging ages and background, said Rose Meadow Farm Administrator Jennifer Andrews-Peters, a Weare resident who has worked at Rose Meadow for eight years.

Estimating the average resident age at about 38, Andrews- Peters said construction accidents account for a good amount of the residents’ injuries. Such events make the facilities’ client base younger than expected, but no less in need of care, Andrew- Peters said.

“When you think of an assisted- living facility, a lot of times you think of old people. Brain and spinal cord injuries don’t discriminate; one of the messages we try to get out is: This could happen to you or your friends,” said Andrews-Peters, an executive board member of the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire.

Residents require 24-hour supervision, but each case calls for an individual approach to patient care, Devine said.

“Our residents are medically stable, but medically complex,” she said.

While some residents cannot leave the confines of their wheelchairs, others enjoy a higher degree of activity, Devine said. Often, their mobility and interests allow them to participate in activities as diverse as karaoke singing or taking evening trips to the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester for concerts.

Residents also make use of an onsite gym. Most of them have individualized exercise plans to maintain strength using specially designed gymnasium equipment. These programs are generally carried over from a previous rehabilitation facility or written by a contracted physical therapist, Devine said.

The gym is one of several features Rose Meadow highlights when speaking to potential residents’ families, said employee Heather Dane. A lifelong resident of New Boston and 2005 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Dane is currently training to be the administrator of Rose Meadow Garden when it opens in the upcoming weeks.

Private bedrooms also attract families of more independentminded residents, Dane said. A recent afternoon tour of Rose Meadow Farm showed residents’ rooms to be decorated with everything from New York Yankees memorabilia to handmade dolls a resident had crafted.

“We want to give people the dignity of setting up their own personal space, and sometimes they can be very creative with it,” Dane said.

Residents can also gather in a common entertainment and recreational room which sometimes doubles as a function hall, and bathe daily in a whirlpool tub room with roll-in showers with the assistance of employees.

“Something as basic as a shower can be really important to a residents’ family,” said Andrews-Peters.

Rose Meadow Garden will open using a phased approach, with new residents staggered in on a weekly basis, Dane said. The facility will likely reach full capacity after approximately 20 weeks, Dane said.