Let's not make nursing homes and assisted living Home-Like - let's make them home!

Yesterday I attended a presentation designed to promote Avamere Health Services' newest community, an up-scale retirement residence called the Stafford to open next year in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

The presenter, talking about the meals, said that they won't be "restaurant-like" but will be authentic restaurant style dining. He said in an off-the-cuff manner, “People say their places are home-like, or their meals are restaurant-like; we’re not going to be ‘like’ anything; we’re going to be genuine.”

I thought, “What an appropriate concept for senior living!”

Too often we focus on being home-like, when what we really offer is a home environment that is simply different from the home one lived in before. If we truly believe that our communities are our residents’ homes, why are we describing them as “home-like?”

Several years ago I wrote an essay titled “Changing Home” in which I described our challenge in introducing my in-laws to moving from their long-time house into a retirement community (read it at the end of this blog). What I was trying to convince my in-laws was that they were not leaving home, but simply changing home.

Somehow we don’t seem all that convincing when we describe our communities, assisted living or nursing home, as “home-like.” Let’s start calling them our residents’ home, and training staff to think of them in exactly that way. We’re then guests and employees in our residents’ home, rather than them being visitors in our “facility.”

Maybe changing our mindset, and the way we orient our staff to think about residents and the building will help us achieve a true culture change that will genuinely make a difference in the quality of life and the quality of care.


Changing Home
(Essay written in June, 2005)

A few weeks ago I shared with you our family's story of helping BOTH sets of parents choose to move into a retirement community.

We spent weeks scheduling the first retirement community visit - weeks during which the negotiation went like this, "Mom, Dad, I know YOU aren't ready for a retirement center, but you know how much it would help the other set of parents."

And the reply invariably went like this, "You're right, we're not ready yet, but the other set of parents sure is!"

Finally, we got to the retirement center and spend hours - literally - getting through both sets of parents' anxieties and resistances.When we left, all four parents were talking about how nice this would be - "4 or 5 years in the future" (that's a 92- year-old speaking)!

Now, two months later, MY parents have their name on two waiting lists, and are actively cleaning out their very formidable collection of stuff; my husband's parents are still talking about the "where" and the "when."

My mother-in-law keeps bringing up this refrain, "I never thought I'd have to give up my home."

And I've been thinking we've been missing the mark here, both in our conversations with the folks, and in the marketing within our profession. We're not asking people to "give up their home" - we're simply asking them to change their address.

Because ANYWHERE can be home - whether you own, rent, or stay free. HOME is that place where you feel comfortable being just "you."

Where, if you're lucky (Mom, Dad, are you listening?) you're surrounded by people who make you laugh, who give you something to talk about, and who share meals, good times and bad times with you - and who are there to help you when you need help.

Because a house is just a house...but a home is absolutely wherever your heart happens to land.

Are You a Learning Leader? Lessons from MetLife

Every day I'm immersed in training issues for senior care providers: writing and editing CEU courses for administrators, discussing new, creative ways to train caregivers, working with our learning partners to develop online courses to reach out to even more care providers, especially those located in rural, remote areas with limited access to big-city training opportunities.

I love the example of MetLife, and the recent article that came to my attention recognizing this company as a "Learning Leader." Doris Fritz, the VP of learning and development, identifies the company's need to go beyond basic training and to address learning as a vehicle for corporate development in a fast-paced, changing business environment (sounds a lot like senior care, doesn't it?).

MetLife chose three main focuses of training:

1) Centralization and systemization to increase efficiencies;
2) Using technology and a design team to gather resources into the central distribution source;
3) Focusing on learning needs that advanced the company as a whole, including new employee orientation, customer sales and service, and in-depth product knowledge.

MetLife had been offering training as instructor-led, but determined that, to meet their goals, they would need to develop a robust e-learning approach. MetLife chose to hire an in-house team and spent significant resources developing their own e-learning solution.

The result? Quicker and more effective skill building in new employees immediately evident, with anticipation of strong, long-term results from this approach.

The application for senior care is clear:

1) Focus on building a community or company training approach that goes further than simply compliance;
2) Look to technology to help systematize the approach and delivery (and we don't need to build it from the ground up, with those high costs and time delays);
3) Expect increased skill development, at a quicker time-line, than traditional instructor-led approaches.

Improved training is accessible to almost every senior care community and company. Not going the extra mile to provide all the training, resources and support to our caregivers and other staff is a mistake that we cannot afford to make as we build excellence in service.

Outsourcing to India the answer to caregiving costs?

Imagine my surprise to open the Sunday newspaper and read the story of the man who moved with his parents - a 93 year old dad with Alzheimer's and an 89 year old mom with Parkinson's - to India for care that cost him less than $20 a day!

So here's the solution to those high costs of care: move to India. Seriously, though, it's a sobering story. Actually, it's quite heartwarming to read about their 1:1 nursing services, daily massages, and hour long physical therapy sessions. The parents are able to live at "home" - a house they share with their son and round-the-clock care staff.

And it's all affordable, with money left over. Their monthly bill for rent, utilities, food, medications AND 24 hour staffing is less than $2,000 a month. That's compared to the typical cost of about $4,000 a month for each of them.

The son in the story looks at his monthly bill and feels happy with the decision he has made, as now his parents get the care and services they need and can afford easily from their own income.

It's sobering to me to wonder if this is what we've come to as a country: the need to move to India - or Mexico - or Canada - to be able to afford medication and care that we will increasing need as we, and our parents, age.

Are there better solutions? Will we be a part in creating them - or just responding as people like us seek and find their own solutions?