A new eldercare pilot program is seeking to bring more holistic and individualized care to residents across the long-term care continuum, including high-needs residents.
Brio Living Services’ Balanced Living program will require more staff hours and financial investments at its communities, but the company’s leaders said that it has the promise to improve resident well-being and get ahead of profitable trends in the sector.
The pilot launched Jan. 3 at Brio’s flagship continuing care retirement / life plan community, Chelsea Retirement Community in Chelsea, MI, with plans to expand to Brio’s 18 other communities, pending positive results.
The program’s core appeal is giving residents a sense of continuity and holistic care throughout the care continuum, said Nicole Maag, chief of residential services at Brio. The Midwest-based organization provides a broad range of care — independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation.
“What seniors and elders really want into their future is to continue to grow and evolve and have meaningful experiences,” Maag told McKnight’s . “Independent living, assisted living and long-term care [skilled nursing] were very siloed experiences. …We intentionally wanted to minimize that difference as much as possible.”
That siloing of events was contributing to residents being upset about transitioning from assisted living to skilled nursing, Maag explained.
“Part of that is just the natural resistance to change,” she noted, “but it was also that we couldn’t really tell them that their lives and the things that were important to them were going to continue in a seamless way as they moved through the continuum.”
Individualizing holistic care
Balanced Living works to cultivate an uncommon level of continuity among programming to ease the tension of transitions to higher-need levels of care and service. Residents also are given individual assessments at every level so that their passions and interests can be factored into regular monthly activities.
Maag gave the example of a tai chi class that was started because of a small group of residents expressing interest in the activity.
“In the past, that wouldn’t have had the traditional return on investment, because you’re only going to get a few people that are interested,” she explained. “But with Balanced Living, we have made that intentional commitment to find out what they want and when possible bring that in.”
Many activities also are run at all levels of the care continuum, with modifications made to keep them appropriate to the needs of the residents involved.
Physical wellness is a baseline priority, according to Maag. This fact led Brio to partner with the National Institute for Fitness and Sport to bring fitness experts to work in several of the communities. But other elements also are important to maintaining a holistic approach, according to Kathy Russell, executive director at Chelsea and two other Brio communities.
“The social and spiritual part of wellness is also a key component of Balanced Living and will set Chelsea Retirement Community apart from wellness programs at many other communities,” she said.
Maag was quick to say that favored old-fashioned events such as bingo night are not going away, but she also added that aging services “must grow beyond the traditional ‘activities calendar’ and embrace the desire of residents to experience meaningful engagement, holistic wellness and lifelong learning.”
Some activities planned for the future are yoga classes, glamour photo shoots, gardening, and happy hours, as well as education and art activities.
Getting ahead of trends
A program such as Balanced Living certainly demands more operator time and financial resources, Maag acknowledged. The program still is in the pilot stage, and factors such as staffing and funding challenges raise the question of why a provider should pour its resources into such individualized activities.
“What we hear as operators is, we have to do something different,” Maag answered. “For us, it really became a question of can we not do it. …By investing in this, we’re expecting that there will be an ROI.”
She compared the program with the growing active adult trend in senior living.
“That’s what they’re selling — that you can have this active and vibrant lifestyle,” she said.
With a wave of new older adults eager for more meaningful retirement years, Brio expects that providing more opportunities for continued learning and holistic lifestyle activities will set operators apart and lead to more residents and income in the future.
This article originally appeared on McKnight's Long-Term Care News
