Autumn is now in full swing and winter is right around the corner, so you may be asking yourself: How do I keep my elderly loved ones or my residents engaged this season? It’s not always easy to find ways to stay entertained on those dreary, cold, and rainy days, however, we have compiled a list of activities for you that may just fit the bill:

Puzzles

As the well-known phrase goes, if you don’t use it, you lose it. As you age, extra measures need to be taken to ensure a sound mind and body. Puzzles are a great way to maintain hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and keep the brain active - and don’t limit yourself to the regular jigsaw puzzles either! Consider handheld brain teasers that require you to find a way to separate two pieces or strategy games like Connect 4. If you know somebody who is mathematically inclined or cruciverbalist, consider Sudoku or crosswords. Challenging yourself in such ways helps maintain vital connections between different areas of your brain.

Sports

When you hear the word ‘competitive’ does anyone in particular come to mind? Or do you know anybody who just likes to be included? Finding activities that everyone can partake in is not always easy when it comes to seniors, but there are still plenty of opportunities to get everyone involved, regardless of mobility capacities. There is something for everyone at an arcade, so don’t be afraid to get creative! Think jumbo ring toss, floor net basketball, indoor mini golf, giant ping pong, and even a dance party - all of which improve balance, flexibility, energy levels and decrease loneliness. Or, for those seniors who prefer something more relaxing, yoga, simple pool noodle exercises and swimming (if there’s a pool) comes with the same benefits as well. Long story short, make exercise fun and it will bring only good things! 

Arts & Crafts

Some days (and people) are just more on the quiet side, so how do you navigate this challenge, you may ask? Get creative, literally! Art takes many forms, including coloring, drawing, painting, sculpting and building. Provide residents with color (or paint)-by-numbers books, or lead drawing sessions that challenge them to use different drawing styles. Hold painting nights where residents can get familiar with different kinds of paint, or even set up your own “paint and sip,” where residents can follow an artist’s lead. If you want to take it a step further, you could even have an art exhibition, where residents can proudly display their work to others. When it comes to sculpting and building projects, consider clay (or Playdoh), and materials like Legos to help residents form their masterpieces! The benefits of art are as much mental as they are physical: from improving cognitive function, memory, self-expression and sense of community, to greater motor skills and coordination.

Music

The beauty of music is a universal experience, and any music lover will tell you how important it is in bringing people together. Ask residents what their favorite songs are and then play them for the whole group. You could even turn it into a game where other residents have to guess which resident chose the song, or guess which artist is singing the song! Not only will residents get a better sense of individual music tastes, but it will promote conversations between residents about songs, and the stories behind them. Since everyone will likely have different tastes in music, residents will walk away not only feeling more connected to their peers, but with new and refreshing music that could prompt personal exploration into a new genre. Another option is to hold karaoke or instrumental nights, where residents can sing out loud or play an instrument such as the piano. All the above has been shown to relax the body, lower blood pressure and improve sleep and digestion, as well as an increased sense of community and friendship.

When it comes to senior care, it's important to remember that everyone was young once, and the desire to feel included, to feel as though one's life has purpose, and to feel loved never goes away. Winter and autumn can be dark, cold and unforgiving, making seasonal depression an unwelcome guest to many. For seniors who are already living away from family and friends, this presents an additional challenge, as they are already feeling isolated from those they love. When considering activities for your seniors, consider those that are not only going to improve or maintain mental skills and bodily coordination, but, arguably more importantly, will build a sense of community and belonging that everyone strives for.

What are some ways that you are keeping your seniors active this season? We’d love to know -  email us or submit a comment below!

AI Enhancing Roles for Senior Living Facilities

AI, also known as artificial intelligence, became popular around the 1980s. John Hopfield and David Rumelhart popularized “deep learning” techniques, allowing computers to learn user experience. Recently we have seen the rise of AI yet again as it made national news, explaining how the system can write term papers for students, update resumes for job seekers, and much more that even made people question their position in the work field. 

AI is taking on a more impactful part in various roles for Senior Living. With the help of AI, senior living facilities are getting assistance with staffing, financial management, fall prevention, and clinical care. According to argentum.com AI is not replacing human intelligence but enhancing it. Well, why AI? What makes this system so reliable for senior living facilities? "It is this analysis of unstructured data, from multiple sources, in real-time, that is perhaps the most unique benefit of AI", says Arena CEO Michael Rosenbaum. 

Now that we know the why let's dive into the how. Rosenbaum says, "AI can find patterns and 'signal' very quickly from massive amounts of data which is the incontrovertible advantage of AI over human capability." It's not that humans are incapable but we are limited when it comes to time and energy whereas a machine is not. As Heather Annolino, senior director of Healthcare Practice at Ventiv, put it, “Artificial intelligence empowers healthcare organizations to obtain and examine data and generate actionable insight quickly and concisely. By quickly uncovering insights and connections, facilities can efficiently enact new or updated protocols without biases—based on fact.” Keefe says better access to data leads to better AI-aided results—and senior living operators and others have better access to data than ever before.“It’s so much easier now for us to collect information from external devices—for example, vital sign monitoring like temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure—and also wearable devices such as Fitbits and Apple watches,” Keefe says. This helps not just to alleviate the burden on the caregiver but helps that caregiver provide much better care. 

One of the most compelling uses of AI in senior living today is the pursuit of preventing resident falls, a persistent and critical challenge for all providers. But, how does it work? AI “generally functions by recognizing patterns and then either suggesting optimal solutions for a human to implement or by actually implementing those solutions itself,” he says.

“For example, most modern cars have a multitude of sensors and other technologies that identify potential risks and then alert the driver to react,” Paprocki says. “That is very different from a fully self-driving car, where the AI not only identifies potential risks but reacts to those risks by autonomously operating the vehicle.”

Paprocki says AI solutions are still closer to the former part of the analogy than the latter—but change is coming.

As with other technological tools, the human component of AI is still vitally important. “We live in a time when staffing has never been harder in our industry,” Paprocki says. “Even if we had triple or quadruple the number of caregivers, we still couldn’t predict, observe, immediately react to, or know how to prevent all falls. And that’s where technology like AI can be lifesaving because it can function like an Iron Man suit for our frontline caregivers.” 

The future of senior care is here.

East Sales Director, Joe Brown, sat on the "Problem Solving Innovations, Enhancing the Senior Living Industry" panel at HealthTAC West 2022. Central Sales Director, Scott Kozimor, also attended, as senior living operators talked candidly about the industry's current state.

Here's some advice from senior living operators on the topic of operational innovation:

• Continuously monitor your empirical data to support needed change.
• Consider 'firing yourself' and hiring a tech leader or partner.
• Innovate in a moving-forward, clearly defined way – no more 'throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks.'
• Champion and participate in whatever innovation you choose to assure success.

Also discussed was how to make new operational innovation successful:

• Build upon a strong technology foundation (i.e., best fiber, network, etc.)
• Make sure it fits within your culture; engage key players to weigh in (i.e., Can we bring it together? Can we sustain it?)
• Train your teams and staff well; measure profitability. 
• Don't get passed by in the market because you overthink it.

A key concern brought up as an obstacle to innovation success was staff burnout. But senior living leaders responded positively, suggesting ways to re-energize and realign staffing:

• Don't be afraid to try new ideas.
• Consider replacing agency roles with inside staff.
• Monitor and stabilize staffing trends (days, hours, etc.) to keep staff coming back.
• Deploy applicant tracking technology.
• Preserve internal knowledgebase – allow staff to go part-time or project-based.
• Engage and involve Millennial staff.

As always, our participation in this networking event gave us perspective on how we can help this industry innovate for success. Did you know we offered: 

• primeCLOUD – secure hosting, plus a line into best-of-breed technologies at partner-negotiated pricing.
• primeVIEW – dashboard app for easily tracking staffing trends, plus other key operational trends (e.g., census, admissions/discharges, billing/receiving, etc).

Get in touch if we can become a partner in your path to operational innovation.

Join executive advisors from Health Dimensions Group (HDG) for an exciting Fall webinar series to help senior care/living operators with a 2022 strategy.

Our first session, Resizing operations based on your data is on October 21 at 2PM ET and will include HDG's CEO Erin Shvetzoff Hennessey and consulting EVP Darrin Hull. They'll discuss the importance of evaluating operational areas and strategies for realigning to impact your financial success and improve quality.

Additional sessions include:

• November 18: Interim staffing when the well runs dry
• December 2: The value of data beyond acquisition
• Jan TBD: Looking back at top trends in 2021

After each session, we'll offer a brief demo of how technology can help. So, save your seat(s) and invite some colleagues!

We’re heading to 2019 MatrixCare Directions with our advanced solutions for long-term care and senior living providers. Our suite of applications have already helped hundreds of senior care customers solve operational pain points such as managed care contract reimbursement, procurement, workforce retention and more. Our apps can even help you prepare for PDPM and value-based care. Let's catch up at the event!