The Six Components of an Excellent Senior Living Wellness Program

When senior living community operators used to think of wellness, the fitness centre or community pool would come to mind. These days, operators are reinventing the way wellness is perceived in the industry. 

Wellness consists of multiple dimensions, seven to be exact. Emotional, environmental, intellectual, physical, professional, social, and spiritual dimensions make up a person’s wellbeing and they must all be addressed within a senior living community’s wellness program. 

So, what makes an excellent wellness program? They have these six things in common:

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1. A Comprehensive Offering
   

Great programs are based on the seven dimensions of wellness alongside an assessment of residents’ needs to create personalized programming. Providing activities and experiences based on the seven dimensions of wellness will help your residents stay healthy and happy, but, being aware of your residents’ unique needs is equally important. Performing regular assessments to understand the physical and mental capabilities of your residents as well as capture their hobbies and interests will help your recreation teams create programs that your residents want to attend, boosting your residents’ satisfaction. 

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2. Continuous Improvement
   

The “set it and forget it mentality” does not work for wellness programming. Ongoing efforts to replicate successes and tweak programming based on staff and resident input, engagement levels, satisfaction scores, and bench-marks from your company and the industry is crucial to maintaining the success of your program. It is extremely important to continuously collect program data to ensure you and your teams can make informed decisions for the future.

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3. Efficiency
   

Using manual and paper-based administrative systems to plan and execute your programming is no longer an efficient option. There are modern tools available that can cut down up to 40% of your recreation staff’s time by digitizing and streamlining their processes. This will give your teams more time to spend with residents and less time performing administrative tasks. It will also reduce human error in reporting and data collected, leaving you with more accurate data.

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4. Integration
   

Many data and information silos exist in senior living communities. Oftentimes, data from EHR systems do not communicate with the recreation team’s processes, creating duplicate and conflicting information. Alleviate your staff from updating multiple systems by selecting a solution that integrates with your current software to create data consistency across all departments.

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5. Communication
   

With the power of technology, residents’ families expect to be informed and engaged with their loved ones. They want to see what their family members are up to and get updates on their physical and emotional wellbeing. This is why it’s crucial for a wellness program to have a secure portal to keep families informed while respecting residents’ security and privacy.

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6. Staff Support
   

Lastly, an excellent wellness program should have the right systems, tools and processes to ensure high-quality experiences that respond to individual and group needs. Implementing solutions that give them the confidence to plan excellent activities will lower employee turnover and help reduce stress in the workplace. Not only will this benefit your staff, but your residents will benefit from the improved workplace environment. 

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So, how can you easily implement these six components into your communities’ wellness program? It’s easy with software solutions like Welbi. Welbi makes it easy for senior living communities to build, implement and monitor exceptional, personalized programs to boost resident satisfaction and engagement. 

If you want to learn more about building an excellent wellness program, check out our free eBook, The Business of Wellness for Senior Communities, or book a demo to see how Welbi can easily support you to achieve these six components within your programming.