Senior Living Communities’ Best of the Best Winning Purpose-Based Wellness program tailors exercise programs to women with osteoporosis, individuals with Type 2 Diabetes, and other populations to improve health and create data invaluable for hospital partnerships.
ALFA 2012 Best of the Best Winner
Often, the hardest residents to entice into an exercise class are the ones who most need it. Until recently, that was certainly the case at Senior Living Communities, where, for example, few women with osteoporosis would attend the strength-training class.
Meanwhile, Senior Living Communities was seeking a way to position itself as a valuable wellness partner for hospitals eager to reduce the likelihood that seniors discharged after an acute health event would need to be rehospitalized.
“We want to be able to target our programs so that in our individual markets, we can provide outcomes that our acute care partners are interested in,” says Katie Huffstetler, chief communications officer.
To fill both gaps, Senior Living Communities now offers “prescriptive” exercise programming through its “Purpose- Based Wellness” initiative. With course offerings such as Walk Tall (for osteoporosis), C.O.P.D. Cops, or Tour de Cure for Type 2 Diabetes, Senior Living Communities tailors exercise classes to address particular diagnoses.
As a result, participation has significantly improved. “It was pretty interesting that when we advertised the Walk Tall class and that it was specifically for people who’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis, it was amazing the women who came out for that class,” says Kelly Stanburg, VP of member services. “They were able to connect the dots for themselves and say, ‘Hey, I have osteoporosis, so that class is for me.’”
At the same time, Purpose-Based Wellness has begun to show some of the measurable results of prescriptive exercise that hospitals like to see, without the clinical environment. For example, after completing a class called “Make it a Habit,” residents at one senior living community who struggled with incontinence cumulatively reduced their number of daily bathroom trips by 50 percent and more than doubled the average length of time between trips.
Most importantly, residents “ultimately have improved their quality of life through their own hard work, with appropriate guidance and instruction. You can’t ask for a better result than that,” says Stanburg.
The above best practice was recognized as an ALFA 2012 Best of
the Best Winner. Do you have a best practice, product, service or
solution at your community or company that is advancing excellence in
senior living? The Call for Nominations for the ALFA 2013 Best of the
Best Awards will begin in November. Visit ALFA.org/bestofthebest to read more best practices.
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