Little Moments Are Big Opportunities For Senior Living Resident Engagement

Incoming senior living residents desire purpose and passion, and senior living operators can give it to them. Even “little moments” can result in lasting connections – with some forethought, anyway.

Senior living operators have in some cases sought to create even more unique moments for residents than they did before in order to stand out from the competition. But they haven’t broken their piggy banks to do so.

“There wasn’t much budgeted for resident experiences over the years, and it’s changed,” Dan Williams, CEO of Onelife Senior Living, told Senior Housing News. “Some of the best resident experiences you can get don’t cost much money.”

Company culture contributes to how residents experience life at their respective communities. Onelife has shifted away from a standard programming calendar and taken more of a microplanning and resident-driven approach for more frequent, smaller activities such as TED Talk-style seminars.

Seattle-based Merrill Gardens is constantly on the lookout to create “Merrill moments,” which its leaders define as standout experiences for residents. That doesn’t always take a big investment to achieve and it creates a lasting memory, according to Chief Operating Officer Jason Childers.

“It’s really getting to know our residents. It’s finding little opportunities and then, and then making a big deal out of it,” Childers said.

‘Little things can turn into bigger events’

As Childers said, operators can sometimes use smaller moments to create a big connection with residents.

For example, residents at a Merrill Gardens community in San Diego got a surprise visit from the pitching staff of the San Diego Padres last year. The visit stemmed from an event in the community wherein residents decorated it to look like Petco Park, the home stadium of the Padres. Dining staff at the community assembled a ballpark menu so residents could get the full take-me-out-to-the-ball-game experience.

Merrill Gardens publicized the decorations in online posts, which led a local news station to pick up the event. That story caught the attention of the Padres, which led to a surprise visit while residents thought they were recording a video to send to the team.

“We understand how these little things can turn into bigger events,” Childers said. “It’s not like we set out to get the Padres to our community. That was never a discussion.”

Merrill Gardens maintains budgets at each community to create and cater to events that could lead to something similar, whether that is a dedicated entertainment budget, budgeting for catering in dining and supplies budgets. Because of this, Merrill Gardens does not have to go out of its way for additional fundraising or charge residents for the events.

“When we can wow them with these additional things, these experiences, that we could create in the community, that’s invaluable. It pays for itself,” Childers said.

‘We’re not shooting for the moon’

Sometimes, engaging a resident is as easy as getting them to laugh.

To that end, Duarte, California-based HumanGood is celebrating National Humor Month throughout April with a live comedy show for residents at its Mount Pleasant Home community.

HumanGood staff and residents co-create programming and events, with around half of the current activities calendars coming from residents, according to Director of Community Life Melissa Sanders.

Other events, such as the comedy night it is hosting, come from staff passions. Will Smalley, director of community life at HumanGood’s Mount Pleasant Home community and a professional comic in the area, has coordinated the National Humor Month event and is involving residents with coming up with jokes to perform during the comedy nights.

Rather than taking residents to a local comedy club, they bring it to them by decorating the community to resemble one and slinging beer, wine and special food pairings.

“We’re not shooting for the moon – we’re shooting for wherever the residents want us to shoot,” Sanders told SHN. “They have such a comfort level for asking for what they want, for sharing how they’re feeling and telling us what works and what doesn’t.”

Residents fund some events and activities themselves. For example, HumanGood is hosting a comedy show with a price for admission for residents.

“It is very rare that we see in our life plan communities us fundraising for the residents or for an activity for them because they moved into a community and they paid for that security and that life and that well being,” Sanders said. “When we have to stretch, we stretch, and then we reevaluate.”

Bringing the outside into the community

Onelife focuses primarily on assisted living and memory care, and thus, its residents aren’t always able to take outings. Because of this, Onelife brings programming and events to the community rather than hosting excursions to somewhere else.

While Onelife used to offer overnight trips for residents, they were not well attended, which led to shifting to day trips instead, such as a coordinated trip to Canyon Beach, Oregon, which includes chef-prepared meals and a day at the beach for its memory care residents.

“I’d love to take a group of memory care residents to Top Golf and have them watch people play golf or hit the driving range, but it’s not too feasible at times,” Williams said. “What we program is more of a resident-centered type approach.”

Onelife focuses on creating one on one or small group programming for residents catered to their interests to better create a sense of purpose for them. In a standalone memory care community in Scottsdale, Arizona, entertainment is brought to the residents by paying for retired musicians to come and perform twice daily, and because it has gone over so well, Williams said, similar approaches are being taken in other communities.

Onelife has since nearly quadrupled its activities budgets across the company and executive directors are regularly encouraged to continue spending the allotted amounts. In the instances where residents take excursions or visits to local movie theaters, Onelife pays the initial costs but then bills the residents afterward, as they tend to pay for any costs accrued outside of the community.

“It needs to be a high priority to invest in,” Williams said. “With that building in Scottsdale … I was coming down on them. But then when I started seeing the results … We got comments into the home office from families, occupancy went up and people were telling us about the community’s good reputation out there for doing this kind of stuff … That’s how we made the decision to quadruple the activities budget for this year.”

The post Little Moments Are Big Opportunities for Senior Living Resident Engagement appeared first on Senior Housing News.