Enhancing Person-Centered Care with the Preferences for Everyday Living Inventory (PELI)

Are you looking to enhance person-centered care in your senior living community? In this blog, you’ll learn how the Preferences for Everyday Living Inventory — PELI — can support you in delivering personalized resident experiences. We’ll explain how PELI works, the benefits of using it, and what your community can do to get started.

PELI is a free assessment tool designed for use with older adults in a variety of settings, including nursing care, post-acute care, assisted living, rehabilitation, and home health care. It was developed by a multidisciplinary team under the leadership of Kimberly Van Haitsma, Ph.D., and Katherine Abbott, Ph.D.

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What is the Preferences for Everyday Living Inventory (PELI)?

PELI is an assessment instrument that can be used by senior living staff to learn about a resident’s personal preferences. The assessment has 72 questions that cover five areas of a person’s life: social contact, personal development, leisure, living environment, and daily routine. Teams can use what they learn from the assessment to develop personalized care plans with the resident. 

PELI is conducted much like the resident assessments you may already be doing in your community. A trained staff member has a conversation with the resident and records their assessment answers. Sixteen of the PELI questions overlap with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Minimum Dataset (MDS) 3.0, Section F — Preferences for Customary Routine and Activities. However, PELI dives deeper into the specifics of resident preferences.

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What are the benefits of using PELI?

Using PELI allows senior living staff to discover their residents’ unique needs and preferences in a systematic way. Having this information supports the development of personalized care plans and enhances person-centered care. When residents’ values and preferences are respected, they tend to experience better health and increased well-being. Offering a personalized experience can boost resident satisfaction and improve your community’s competitive positioning. 

PELI helps life enrichment staff understand what is meaningful to each resident so they know where to focus their time and effort. The assessment prompts residents to tell the interviewer if an activity is important to them but they feel like they can no longer do it. For example, a resident might say they used to love to garden but now find it physically challenging. Life enrichment teams can find creative ways to navigate barriers and fulfill their residents’ wishes. This can lead to increased job satisfaction, as staff feel like they are truly making a difference in their residents’ lives. 

If you want to start using PELI, you can download the PELI questionnaire that best matches your community’s needs for free! You can also check out these tips on how to get started with PELI.

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How can Welbi help with PELI?

Welbi’s resident experience platform provides life enrichment teams with the tools they need to deliver on person-centered care. The platform digitizes resident assessments so important information about a resident’s needs, values, and preferences is accessible to the care team at all times. Staff can familiarize themselves with a resident’s preferences before interacting with them to ensure they are providing a personalized experience.

If you want to customize your community’s assessment questions in Welbi or learn more about how the platform supports person-centered care, you can contact us or book a demo!