Harold, a long-time resident of a Texas senior living community, struggled with severe anxiety and depression. In an effort to help stabilize Harold’s mood swings, his care team introduced him to aromatherapy. This complementary therapy approach uses essential oils from plants to address health challenges and support overall wellness.
Job seekers in the senior care labor market have no shortage of employment options. Employers are vigorously competing for an ever-shrinking pool of qualified staff. A key differentiating strategy for senior care employers is to be an “employer of choice” through employee wellness programs and by creating a healthy, highly supportive, employee-centric workplace.
Preventing falls is a top concern for seniors. Falls and related injuries can seriously impact senior lives, limiting activities and compromising the ability to live independently. Senior care providers are working hard to ensure their living environments, activity programs, and staff education initiatives help residents stay safe from falls.
Exercise is essential to keeping seniors healthy, active, and motivated. But getting them on board with a well-rounded exercise program can be a challenging task. Senior living providers are looking for fresh approaches to engage residents in fitness – with easy-to-implement group programs that still meet individual needs.
Short-term rehabilitation, or “rehab,” centers provide critical medical follow-up for patients in their first days after a hospital stay. These facilities are key to ensuring a continued high level of care that helps patients regain health, strength, and mobility. They can mean the difference between a frustrating rebound to the hospital and a seamless return to home.
Recovery requires more than just top-tier clinical care. It also involves providing opportunities for purposeful activity and engagement. One best-practice innovation is “Wellness on Wheels,” a mobile concierge program offering a range of portable activities for residents and their families.
Many senior living communities are looking for ways to decrease the use of antipsychotic medications through nonpharma approaches. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has set a national goal of reducing the use of antipsychotic medication in long-term care facilities by 15 percent by the end of 2019.
A viable alternative? Aromatherapy. CMS supports the use of aromatherapy as an “individualized, nonpharmacological intervention to help meet behavioral health needs.” Clinical studies point to promising results: aromatherapy programs have helped in reducing medications for pain, anxiety, and depression, as well as improving sleep and lowering fall rates.
Senior loneliness is not only a pressing social issue, it’s also a major health risk. A groundbreaking study links social isolation with a higher risk of death in adults aged 52 and older.It’s been found to be as physically harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and contributes to cognitive decline, including the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).
To fight the loneliness epidemic – experienced by more than 40 percent of seniors throughout the nation – innovators in senior care are taking new approaches. They’re helping residents to seek rewarding activities, make robust social connections, and find a renewed sense of purpose.
Health literacy is our ability to understand health information and make the best health care decisions. A seminal study of these skills has issued a troubling report card: just 12 percent of all adults – and 3 percent of seniors – have proficient health literacy.
“Low health literacy has been linked to poor health outcomes, such as higher rates of hospitalization and less frequent use of preventive services,” says Callie Whitwell, chief operating officer and founding partner at Lifetime Wellness. Her company provides person-centered wellness, life enrichment, and recreational programming to independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing and rehabilitation, and memory care facilities throughout Texas and Oklahoma.
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