Tips for Promoting Resident Health at Your Assisted Living Facility
You and your team are devoted to caring for your residents as they continue to age. An important part of your residents’ care is helping each senior maintain and even improve their well-being as much as possible.
Promoting health and wellness at your assisted living facility should extend beyond the healthcare services you provide (for example, helping them stay on track with their medication regimen or arranging medical care with local physicians or practices). It’s important to take a holistic approach to wellness for your seniors for the benefit of those you serve and your team members providing care.
What Is Holistic Health?
Holistic health for your facility means focusing on your residents’ physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health.
Holistic health considers all the parts that make up a single individual:
- Body
- Mind
- Soul
- Social group(s)
- Cultural background(s)
- Environment(s) that shaped them into who they are now
With seniors, specifically, it can be easy to watch them develop physical limitations or complications as they age and determine that medical care or intervention is the only effective or helpful next step. However, holistic care that also offers mental stimulation, social connection, and spiritual connection can be even more effective at helping them overcome some of the physical pains and hardships that aging can bring.
What Are the Benefits of a Holistic Approach to Senior Care?
The benefits of holistic health and wellness for your senior residents are far-reaching, but they can also vary from patient to patient.
Some of the most common benefits of holistic senior care include:
Improved Mental Health
Physical ailments can often be made worse by mental health issues like anxiety and depression, both of which tend to affect people as they age. In treating a patient’s mind along with their body, you can help them improve their overall health, reduce pain, or increase their ability to manage the pain and/or hardships that come with aging.
Improved Sleep
Sleep can become more challenging to get enough of as we age. Seniors can sometimes struggle to get enough good-quality, consistent sleep thanks to problems like continuous pain, illness, or even sleep disorders like restless leg syndrome. Holistic wellness can help address some of the related issues interrupting your patients at night so that they can achieve better rest, which can ultimately help improve their function throughout the day.
Better Pain Management
Medical intervention and care can help with pain management, but so can more movement, strength training, and other patient-centered exercises. An improved social life can help reduce pain, too, along with better sleep and mental health improvement.
Boosted Moods
When you help a senior patient reduce or better manage their physical pain, improve their sleep, and improve their mental health, chances are you’ll help them boost their mood, which is a significant factor in the quality of their aging process. The better a patient’s general mood and outlook is, the easier it can be for them to embrace each day.
Better Cognitive Function
Holistic health that focuses on mental stimulation and acuity can help improve a patient’s cognitive function, which is hugely beneficial to their overall well-being. It also serves your team members as they provide care to the patient. The more “with it” a patient is mentally, the less of a challenge care can be on those providing it.
More Independence
Senior patients can achieve more independence if their pain is better managed or improved and their cognitive functions are strengthened. Improvements in these areas allow them to require less assistance throughout the day, which is a benefit to them and a benefit to your team, who can focus more on the residents who need more assistance and attention.
Tips to Promote Holistic Health at Your Assisted Living Facility
If you operate an assisted living facility, you likely already employ strategies designed to care for your patients holistically. However, we want to provide some additional ideas, tips, and suggestions for even more holistic care throughout your facility:
Offer a Variety of Movement-Focused Classes or Events
Physical activity is extremely important to maintaining good physical and mental health, improving energy levels, and boosting moods, even for seniors. No matter what your residents’ mobility levels are, you can offer tailored, adjustable exercise or movement classes that promote physical activity.
Ideas for classes include:
- Chair exercises
- Walking
- Gentle yoga
- Ability-appropriate strength training
Promote a Variety of Mentally Stimulating Activities
The more a senior’s brain is put to work, the more likely they are to maintain cognitive function. Seniors are at an age where cognitive function can decline either gradually or fairly rapidly. But by offering stimulating activities to participate in, you can help them use their brain and strengthen their mind or keep their mind sharp as they continue to age.
Mentally stimulating activities can include:
- Puzzles
- Arts and crafts
- Board games
- Bingo nights
- Trivia nights
- Gardening classes
- Group music
- Reading
Promote Socialization
It was Kahlil Gibran who said, “In the sweetness of friendship, let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things, the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” And it was the Beatles who sang, “I get by with a little help from my friends.”
Friendship and social interaction are so beneficial for your residents’ minds, bodies, and souls. Promoting activities where residents can socialize and strengthen their connection with one another is a fantastic way to promote holistic health across your facility.
Ideas to promote socialization include offering:
- Book clubs
- Knitting groups
- Gardening groups
- Chess or checkers games
- Bridge events (or other card games)
- Singing clubs
- Movie nights
And so many more.
In many cases, social interaction and mental stimulation work congruently to significantly benefit your residents’ overall well-being.
Angus Lake Healthcare is deeply focused on the health and well-being of your residents.
At Angus Lake Healthcare, our pharmacists and staff are committed to helping your facility provide the best care to your residents. We offer standard pharmacy services, compliance packaging, patient education, medication inspections, reviews, vaccinations, and so much more to help improve the health of those you care for. Whether you operate an assisted living facility, personal care home, group home, or any other program or facility, you can count on our team to provide comprehensive pharmaceutical care that benefits your residents and staff.
To learn more about our capabilities and the services we can provide you, schedule a consultation with Angus Lake Healthcare today: 478-233-1828.
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