How to provide person-centered engagement in memory care

Person-centered care has received growing support as an effective and compassionate approach for supporting individuals with dementia. Research shows that memory care residents who receive individualized support and engagement experience fewer negative symptoms such as loneliness and depression, and can enjoy a higher quality of life.

The Alzheimer’s Association defines person-centered care as “a philosophy of care built around the needs of the individual and contingent upon knowing the unique individual through an interpersonal relationship.”

How do you enable staff to get to know each individual memory care resident, so that they can meet their unique needs? The answer lies in tools that make it easier for staff to understand residents and their preferences, and use that information to create personalized programming.

The following are best practices for scaling personalized memory care engagement so that each resident receives the support they need to lead lives of meaning and dignity. 

Help staff gather resident stories

Research has found that, due to cognitive decline, residents with dementia rely on a sense of continuity and identity to maintain well-being. It’s critical for memory care staff to understand residents’ life history, so that they can connect them with meaningful past and present experiences.

The resident intake process is the best opportunity for staff to honor residents’ life stories. During the resident interview, using tools such as AI-powered transcription can help staff capture more detailed and accurate information on residents’ history, preferences, and interests. And because the tools help alleviate staff from manual note-taking, they can be more present with the resident and family members and build a foundation of trust.

Once resident background information is captured, a system for digital resident profiles can centralize this information and ensure staff can access the same information on each resident.

Sitting with each resident and recording their life story and preferences, and then being able to recall that information through a centralized repository, helps staff offer continuous experiences that help affirm each residents’ individuality. 

Enable staff to personalize programming

With the information captured in resident interviews, staff can offer personalized programming that honors residents’ history and preferences. Having this information centralized and integrated with an AI-powered activity management software then makes it possible for staff to quickly generate calendars that reflect residents’ interests.

For instance, if your resident population has a variety of music preferences, an AI-enhanced calendar management solution can generate sing-along activity ideas that touch on each residents’ favorite genres, so that they all feel included and engaged.

Providing access to a robust engagement content library also helps teams offer dynamic engagement, while remaining flexible and responsive. For example, clinically-backed iN2L Content can provide a variety of cognitive games, music, and reminiscence activities tailored to different stages of dementia. These not only stimulate memory and emotions but also help residents reconnect with meaningful aspects of their identity. And if your content repository is integrated with your activity planning solution, AI-powered features can assist staff further by recommending content that aligns with the activity and resident interests.

Especially in memory care settings where residents are at different stages of dementia and Alzheimer's, it’s critical for staff to have tools to meet residents where they are, engaging them with personalized activities and content that speaks to their personhood.

Learn more about how iN2L Content is used in memory care settings in this Flourishing Communities webinar with the staff at Heritage Memory Life Community.

More staff time, more person-centered attention

Each resident, regardless of cognitive status, deserves to be treated as an individual with unique beliefs, identity, and experiences. By equipping staff with the right tools, community leaders can not only make it possible for them to personalize experiences, but also free up their time to offer more individualized attention and connect with residents in meaningful ways.