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This blog is part of the Resident Journey Series. It explores how a community can use the detailed information about a resident’s unspoken needs, and the insights it creates, to drive the resident’s journey purposefully within the community.
Resident Journey, the game changer for senior living engagement solutions, helps operators drive a more personalized resident experience from the moment a resident moves in until they leave. The resident shares—through technology—deeper, more personal information that the community uses to customize recommendations for each resident and gauge an individual’s health and wellbeing. This gives the resident a better experience.
The staff has a consistent measure of resident health and wellbeing that can be trended over time, and a deeper understanding and ability to resolve a resident’s unspoken needs. These needs can extend far beyond basic customer service and help the staff increase the resident’s overall satisfaction and length of stay.
For families, they have access to unique insights about their loved ones’ experiences, health and overall wellbeing. This reassures them that their loved ones are experiencing longevity with vitality.
Helping Barbara help herself
In the previous blog, we discovered how asking our resident Barbara a series of settling-in and wellbeing questions gave Deborah, the Executive Director, the insights she needed to help Barbara connect with another resident interested in genealogy. And the information Deborah learned from Barbara’s answers extended far beyond that one insight. Let’s revisit…
Barbara had already completed 90 days of successful living in the community, answering Resident Journey questions on her TV. The most recent question Barbara answered was: “Do you have friends and family that you connect with regularly?” She selected the “Sometimes” button. In conversation, if Barbara answered “Sometimes” to this direct question, you might not recognize the potential enormity of that answer. After all, on any given day, many people would give a similar answer: “Sometimes” is similar to saying “I’m fine.”
In senior living, a frequent answer of “Sometimes” can signal loneliness. An answer of “Sometimes” or “Fine” is not the same as achieving vitality. Most people would miss this signal because it’s hard to remember and correlate a set of similar answers quickly. Only smart technology can make the connection and drive a follow up action or conversation that makes a real difference in Barbara’s day.
The power of a nudge
A key goal of the resident journey is to enable residents to control their own journey. Sometimes all they need is a “nudge” to help them take an action that changes their experience for the better. Caregivers and family might not recognize the need for that nudge. Technology, however, can recognize behavioral changes much faster than the human eye.
A sophisticated Resident Journey solution will ask a question, score the answer, and act on that information immediately. When Barbara answers the question “Do you have friends and family that you connect with regularly?” with “Sometimes,” a powerful Resident Journey tool can push a recommendation to Barbara’s TV to create awareness of the value of relationships.
The recommendation provides instant feedback to Barbara and helps Barbara help herself. It feeds recommendations and ideas to Barbara to help her unlock her inner vitality activation key.
When she answers “Sometimes” to the question: Do you have friends and neighbors that rely on you for friendship and connection?, the Resident Journey app might feed her:
When Barbara answers “Rarely” to Do you feel others respect your freedom and privacy?, Resident Journey feeds her:
When Barbara answers “Usually” to When you awake in the morning do you have a plan for the day? Resident Journey feeds her:
Why it works
“A feeling of community starts when a person recognizes the need to have other people help spread happiness, fuel purpose and share gifts and skills,” explains Sara Kyle, PhD, LE3 Solutions and resident experience expert. “By offering a suggestion or recommendation following an individual response, a community can influence and support residents without being invasive. When an individual’s responses continue to score low, or even decrease, an Executive Director or Activities Director receives an alert to offer personal support.
“In this way, the resident Barbara, feels a sense of accomplishment by being proactive, and Deborah, our Executive Director, as well as family members feel confident in Barbara’s transition into the community.“
Learn more about Resident Journey
We continue to share that Resident Journey is about purposely driving an experience for your residents based on their individual wants and needs for as long as they live in your community. Those needs can change as their lives change, and Resident Journey gives you a systematic way to capture and act on them. It is those insightful actions that will elevate and differentiate an operator. Being able to confidently say “we offer the best care, support and engagement because we know our residents’ needs so well.”
Resident Journey is a key part of Engage360SM. Learn more about these senior living solutions how you can use both to change the way your team interacts with and serves your residents.