Four Communities That Shine at Providing Purposeful Engagement

Purposeful engagement increases elders’ feelings of self-worth and confidence by sprinkling purpose and joy into everyday activities. Communities that implement a purposeful engagement framework create activities based on residents’ personal interests, skill sets, and experiences. This blog highlights four recipients of the 2022 Communities That Shine Awards who use iN2L + LifeLoop technology to create innovative activity programs anchored in purposeful engagement.

Anthology of Troy

Recognized for Brilliance in Purposeful Engagement

Anthology of Troy, a Michigan-based senior living community, offers its assisted living and memory care residents the best in hospitality and care so they can live their stories in a beautiful and meaningful way. They have been using iN2L for years and have recently added the LifeLoop platform and app to their arsenal of person-centered technology. We recognize Anthology of Troy for Brilliance in Purposeful Engagement.

Darlene Vernier, Executive Director at Anthology of Troy, is impressed by the way iN2L content encourages memory care residents to engage independently and with purpose. She shares, “We have a particular resident who loves jigsaw puzzles. He is excited to utilize the iN2L system to independently work on puzzles. We also have a resident who utilizes the iN2L technology as a job function. This resident finds purpose in helping our Activities Team prepare the technology for activities. For example, she turns on music when no music is playing, displays the calendar, and talks to the other residents to help orientate them to the time, place, and holiday.”

Anthology of Troy uses technology to create modern and structured activity programs that promote purposeful engagement and person-centered care. Implementing a person-centric care approach is no easy feat. It requires attention to detail, time, and effort. Thankfully, the team leans on iN2L + LifeLoop to lighten the load. Vernier remarks, “Our care staff utilizes iN2L as if it’s another “member of the team.” She shares how the technology assists staff with redirecting residents by providing them with a calming experience during sundowning or other moments of anxiety or insomnia. In fact, she finds iN2L + LifeLoop so helpful that she trains all of the care staff on how to utilize the technology for those moments when the activity team is not available.

To learn more about Anthology of Troy and what makes them shine, visit their website: Anthology of Troy

Opportunities, Inc.

Recognized for Brilliance in Resident Empowerment

Opportunities, Inc. is an organization that offers a range of residential services for adults with developmental disabilities. For over a year, they have leveraged the LifeLoop platform and app to create workflows that have earned them recognition for Brilliance in Resident Empowerment.

This Texas-based community is committed to providing programs that promote independence and self-worth to its clients. Director of the Adult Center, Continuing Education Program Zoe Nakashian shares how LifeLoop has done just that. “LifeLoop has allowed our clients to not only see their calendar but to also take part in choosing what they want to do. This is a freedom that nondisabled adults don’t even think about! Furthermore, because we add all their appointments to their schedule on the app, they can see what appointments are coming up and know what to expect,” she explains.

Clients are taught how to use the LifeLoop app and the results have been inspiring! Nakashian shares, “We started working with a group of clients to have them write a newsletter, which will be published through LifeLoop, about what is going on in their community. They love this process and have conducted their first interview with a volunteer who works with us. They love the chance to be able to do these things themselves. It gives them a sense of self-worth, rather than just being told what’s happening.” The LifeLoop app is designed to be easy to use, regardless of one’s abilities. The clients of Opportunities, Inc. have been having a blast learning the technology this past year. “They particularly like looking at the photos of themselves,” exclaims Nakashian.

The LifeLoop platform has also been a big help to the amazing staff at Opportunity, Inc. Nakashian comments, “Staff can access the app on our tablets and enter attendance through the app during class. There is no need to record attendance on paper and then reenter it into our database later. When we need to pull what activities a client has attended to send to Medicaid, we can just run a report and then send it! We no longer have to look through hundreds of attendance documents. It is such a time saver!” 

To learn more about Opportunities, Inc. and what makes them shine, visit their website: Opportunities, Inc.

Anthology of Olathe

Recognized for Brilliance in Engagement Innovation

Anthology of Olathe, a Kansas-based senior living community, is recognized for Brilliance in Engagement Innovation. With over 2 years of experience leveraging iN2L technology in their activity programs, this passionate team has truly mastered the art of creating innovative and purposeful engagement programs for independent living, assisted living, and memory care residents.

Residents of Anthology of Olathe regularly visit museums, tour the world, sample cuisines from across the globe, and still find time for casino nights, karaoke sessions, and Sunday morning worship. How can all this be possible? Through the power of iN2L! The variety of iN2L content allows residents to experience the world through the comfort of their community.

Anthology of Olathe’s Director of Elements Jessica Kent-Deterding excitedly shares the many ways in which the team uses iN2L content to create happy times and experiences for residents. Across all levels of care, residents enjoy sharing—and showing—where they grew up and about their nationalities using the iN2L travel section. The large variety of content acts as a great tool for stimulating conversation and triggering memories among residents. Kent-Deterding recalls the excitement of residents as they watch and reminisce over classic commercials. She explains, “There are so many things that iN2L allows our residents to connect with.” Every month, Anthology of Olathe invites staff from the local library to come in and speak with the residents about various places around the world. To supplement these informative sessions and make them more interactive, the staff pull up flyover videos from the iN2L content library. “Residents really enjoy flying over a country using the flyover videos to see countries from the sky in ways they have never experienced before. These are trips they may not have taken before, or that they have taken long ago and now are able to remember and share special stories about it,” shares Kent-Deterding.

With such a resident-centric engagement program, the staff is proud to invite family members to many of their special events, such as the Casino Night Prom and museum tours. “We have had several occasions where family members sit and enjoy the museum tours and country flyovers with us, and it opens an opportunity for the families to learn about residents’ special memories and to learn about what they know. It’s been wonderful hearing the stories and learning about the lives of our residents that led them to where they are now,” comments Kent-Deterding.

The team at Anthology of Olathe have also noted the tremendous amount of time and money they have saved by incorporating iN2L technology into their activity program. Physical therapists are enjoying spicing up their memory care intervention plans with all the ready-to-use content that is available through iN2L, such as matching games and trivia. The staff appreciates not needing to lead every minute of a group activity. The automated pieces of content allow them to walk around the room and provide residents with more 1:1 support and interaction during group activities. Kent-Deterding says, “The level of interaction greatly increases as well as the number of residents who are able to stay invested in the activity. We have much less of a chance of residents falling asleep or wandering off when the iN2L is being used. The iN2L content is truly used daily in such a variety of ways that I could go on all day about how useful it has been, the stress it has relieved, the financial savings it has offered compared to buying paper, board games, movies, etc.”

To learn more about Anthology of Olathe and what makes them shine, visit their website: Anthology of Olathe

Rose Blumkin Jewish Home

Recognized for Brilliance in Transforming Program Delivery

The vibrant and colorful senior living community Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, located in Omaha, Nebraska, is a long-time user and advocate of the LifeLoop platform and has recently adopted iN2L. Their hip and cutting-edge community is recognized for Brilliance in Transforming Program Delivery.

Maggie Conti, Director of Activities and Volunteer Services, adamantly states, “Our department cannot live without LifeLoop.” The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, or RBJH, community uses the LifeLoop app to chart attendance and shudders at the thought of ever going back to pen and paper. The lift in manual labor is not the only appeal of the Resident Tracking feature. Conti shares, “Since charting attendance on LifeLoop, we can capture more of what a resident does during the day, not just scheduled activities. Programs include beauty shop appointments, family/friends/volunteer visits, pet visits, personal television preferences, one-to-one visits, outings with family, and off-hour activities. These are activities that were never charted before LifeLoop. Families are amazed at all the varied activities residents attend, and the reporting functions save countless hours during the care plan process. Deleting a program or adding a spontaneous activity to the calendar takes seconds.” With the LifeLoop app, staff can easily view which activities residents attend and can even filter their search by resident, making it easy to curate programs designed to pique residents’ interests!

RBJH hosts their own in-house television station where residents can view the LifeLoop calendar and daily activities for the month. Residents are able to turn to the station any time of day to check out the calendar. Conti discusses how the community enjoys leveraging the electronic calendar display. “It rescues staff from having to create four different calendars by hand. We also enjoy posting photos immediately to the calendars so that residents can enjoy seeing themselves instantly.”

Family members are really impressed with the way iN2L + LifeLoop offers them a window into the everyday lives of their loved ones. Families enjoy sending and receiving pictures and videos of their loved one. “LifeLoop’s ability to connect family members is terrific,” exclaims Conti. “One family sent photos of a resident’s granddaughter’s wedding through LifeLoop, and the resident was over the moon with joy.” Additionally, the LifeLoop platform automatically sends family members a weekly update that includes the attendance summary of their loved one’s activities. “Showing the weekly attendance of their loved one through the LifeLoop Connection Portal is an eye-opener to many family members who think their loved one sits around and does nothing,” remarks Conti.

Not only is the LifeLoop technology a staff and family pleaser—residents are truly enjoying all the iN2L content available. Check out what the residents at RBJH have to say about the iN2L content:

“I like the travel section because I can watch videos and learn about every country worldwide.”

 

– Ron, RBJH resident

“Yesterday, we used the maps to look up everyone’s address from childhood homes. We could see how all of the houses look today. Seeing where everyone grew up was fun, and looking at the house I grew up in brought back so many memories.”

– Steve, RBJH resident

“I enjoy the video of children laughing. It’s so contagious and makes everyone giggle.”

– Mary, RBJH resident

In an interview with The Jewish Press, Conti shared, “We are honored and humbled to be named one of the winners of the 2022 iN2L + LifeLoop Communities That Shine Awards! Several years ago, we immediately became subscribers when we first saw what LifeLoop could do. Our Activities staff and our families LOVE it! Once we saw iN2L’s capabilities, we were equally enamored with it and became subscribers to it as well. These programs have added so much to an already robust activities calendar; our residents have thousands of options daily. Best money we have ever spent!”

To learn more about Rose Blumkin Jewish Home and what makes them shine, visit their website: Rose Blumkin Jewish Home

Thank You for Your Commitment to Enhancing Senior Care!

We would like to congratulate the incredible staff at Anthology of Troy, Opportunities, Inc., Anthology of Olathe, and Rose Blumkin Jewish Home for creating purposeful engagement programs that enhance the quality of life for their residents. They understand the importance of holistically nurturing the entire human throughout the aging experience. Thank you for your dedication to providing elders with the quality of life they deserve! Stay tuned for future blog posts featuring the other winners of the 2022 Communities That Shine Awards.

Technology is a crucial tool for executing a scalable purposeful engagement program for all residents. To learn how iN2L + LifeLoop can help get your community started on a purposeful engagement framework, check out our blog!