Many residents of assisted living facilities need help with mobility and other physical aspects of their lives, but they retain their mental faculties. However, many assisted living facilities tend to focus more on schedules, efficiency, safety concerns and State compliance instead of ways to promote resident independence. You want to provide the best care possible for your elderly residents, and studies show that balancing safety and independence in an assisted living facility increases the happiness of residents and improves the overall quality of life. But how can you implement programs and strategies that foster independence?

The Path to Autonomy

The ability to make decisions for oneself is a cornerstone of medical ethics and is perhaps even more important for elderly residents. As the body and mind decline, it is all too easy for a resident to feel like they are losing control of their life. That is why it is important to give your residents as many choices as possible in their daily lives. They may not have control over the medications they take, but they can choose what they want for dinner or whether they’d like to play Bingo, for example. Multiple chances to make choices for themselves throughout the day makes it easier for a resident to accept and even enjoy the parts of life they no longer have control over, such as their living arrangement.

The Role of Staff Members

It is likely that your staff are already balancing safety and independence in an assisted living facility without realizing it, but extra training can be beneficial. It’s important for staff to understand that independence starts with respect, so they should be instructed to treat each resident as an equal individual. Additionally, autonomy is centered on choice, so clear, concise and jargon-free information should be given so a resident can have a complete picture of what their choices are. Each resident should be as involved as possible involved in any decision that affects their care.

Open Lines of Communication

There are many key players on a resident’s care team. From the resident and their family members to the CNAs, nurses and doctor, everyone has a duty to help improve the quality of care wherever possible. This is best accomplished through open lines of communication. For example, if your resident tells a family member that they no longer want chicken for dinner, the family member can pass that information on to the dietary staff. The family member feels like an important part of their loved one’s care team, and the resident feels validated because their needs are better met.

Balancing safety and independence in an assisted living facility is relatively easy for residents without any cognitive disabilities, but can take some finesse for others. So long as your staff is fully committed to providing clear information and as many choices as possible, your residents will be cared for safely while retaining as much autonomy as possible.

Attract New Residents to Your Senior Assisted Living Facility – Share How Your Senior Home Embraces Each Individual’s Abilities

Use inbound marketing to reach more potential senior residents and their adult children and let them know your facility’s unique, caring philosophy.

Not sure how to get started? Request a free consultation with UmeWorks on inbound marketing for your Senior Living Facility and receive a copy of Dr. Gawande’s book Being Mortal while supplies last. Include “Being Mortal” in your comments.

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Dr. Gawande proposes that that “quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Medicine has triumphed in modern times, but in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. He offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and demonstrates that an aging person’s life may be rich and dignified.”

As the face of America is equally becoming more culturally diverse, senior car facilities are finding it challenging to become not only culturally sensitive but culturally attractive to the growing diverse elder population. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that within the next three years 25% of adults age 65 and over will be non-Caucasians.

Senior Living Centers must keep up with the changes in demographics, and how do they appeal to a multitude of cultures — all at the same time.

Some senior living facilities have turned to cultural niches with emphasis on certain particular cultures such as Asian Americans or Hispanic Americans. You don’t have to generalize your senior living facility and steal appeal to a diverse population by incorporating as many cultural traditions as possible. Here are some tips on serving cultural needs in senior living centers.

Ethnically Diverse Foods

Serving a wide array of food will be attractive to anyone. Train your kitchen staff on cultural dietary restrictions and be sure to always have an alternative option for those that are unable to eat certain meal options, such as a Kosher alternative. Switching up the menu on a weekly or daily basis to serve different styles of foods is a great way to include many cultural groups but to also help your residents to not become tiresome of the same meal every day. Offering culturally diverse cooking classes in another great choice if you have a facility with active seniors that would like to participate in learning new dishes or want to show others their own traditional meals.

Staff

Hiring care providers and other personnel that can speak multiple languages is a major plus to residents who would like to be able to speak to others in their native tongue. This can be difficult as there is a multitude of different languages or dialects, however just having translators available would be a huge plus as well.

Respecting and celebrating traditions and holidays

Training your staff and personnel on the differences among cultural holidays and traditions is extremely important as you will reduce possibilities of offending anyone or leaving groups out. Staff must also be aware of behavioral and emotional differences in cultures such as avoiding eye contact as a sign of respect to some.

Be sure to celebrate the holidays of your resident’s cultures as well as the traditional American holidays. Residents will appreciate the ability to experience new traditions and to teach others about their own.

Access to diverse cultural entertainment

Provide your residents with access to foreign films, literature, and music so they can feel the comforts of home. If you bring in entertainment to your facility look not dancers, musicians, and speakers, etc who deliver cultural experiences similar to those of your residents. If there are museums or cultural centers close by providing transportation to and from these places will be a huge attraction to residents that crave cultural experiences.

Providing a Sense of Community

The most important thing to keep in mind when serving cultural needs in senior living centers is to keep everyone included and to create a sense of community among diversity. Residents play an important role in making other residents feel welcome so try to always include everyone together to eliminate the potential of cliques forming among different groups. When serving cultural needs in senior living centers always be culturally sensitive to those around you and open-minded to the needs of others.

Attract Residents of Diverse Backgrounds by Highlighting How Your Senior Living Facility Attunes to the Cultural Needs of Various Ethnicities

Use inbound marketing to do this. Need help? UmeWorks can help you create an inbound marketing strategy to those you are targeting, and help you manage your plan. Contact us for a free initial consultation.

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