A research- and evidence-based initiative is underway to develop a process to help assisted living communities and other long-term care facilities achieve a new designation of excellence in person-centered care.
The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing received an 18-month, $375,000 award from the Mayer-Rothschild Foundation to develop the Mayer-Rothschild Foundation Designation of Excellence in Person-Centered Long-Term Care. The grant will be used to develop the processes, tools and standards to guide and evaluate assisted living communities, memory care communities and nursing homes on their journeys to achieving the credential.
“Person-centered care allows individuals to choose their own goals and determine how to achieve those goals,” Joseph Ouslander, MD, Florida Atlantic University professor of geriatric medicine and project collaborator, said in a statement. “It is built on the values of dignity and respect for each individual.”
A recent study published in the journal Aging and Health Research found that person-centered care directly ties into resident satisfaction indicators by focusing on autonomy and privacy, physical environment, safety and security, caregivers, meals and general satisfaction.
The institute will test the initiatives with five long-term care communities across the country: Beatitudes Campus in Phoenix; Bethel New Life, a Chicago-based nonprofit community development organization; Garden Spot Communities in Pennsylvania; the New Jewish Home, a nonprofit older adult healthcare system in New York; and Sequoia Living, a life plan community operator in California.
The Mayer-Rothschild Foundation in Chicago is the only philanthropic organization in the nation dedicated to promoting person-centered care in residential care communities serving older adults. The goal of the initiative is to create a blueprint for long-term care through evidence-based, rigorous research.
“While person-centered care has not historically been the norm in nursing homes and other long-term care settings, there is a critical opportunity to move toward practices that honor residents’ preferences, foster communication between residents and staff, and empower older adults while moving away from top-down, task-driven practices,” HIGN Executive Director Tara Cortes, PhD, RN, FAAN, and principal investigator on the project, said in a statement.
