Senior Lifestyle is retooling and enhancing its memory care program to meet incoming demand as high acuity needs continue to drive providers to strengthen their models to slow the cognitive decline of residents.
Through the company’s Embrace memory care program, the Chicago-based senior living provider operates 42 memory care communities spanning approximately 1,4000 units.
New this year in 2025 is new programming to engage memory care residents, including music therapy for late-stage dementia residents. Senior Lifestyle also installed all memory care directors as certified dementia practitioners to improve quality of care and care coordination across the portfolio.
The company added one new memory care community to its portfolio this year, adding a memory care addition to a free-standing independent living building.
“There’s been a paradigm shift with the protocols for dementia care in general and we’ve evolved to meet that need,” said Senior Lifestyle Vice President of Clinical Services Angel Morrison.
Rising acuity forces shift in operations
Rising acuity of older adults seeking assisted living and memory care services in the last five years has led Senior Lifestyle to review its programming and care efforts. The operator’s new music therapy program aims to connect with residents that are non-verbal or in late-stage dementia progression.
“Residents are waiting longer to come to us and they are much further along in the disease process so we’ve had to develop time on how we can meet that need,” Morrison said.
This led Senior Lifestyle to implement a certified dementia practitioner requirement for all memory care directors mixed with additional training to improve operations to meet these higher acuity needs.
To support this shift, Senior Lifestyle is integrating technology to support staff and expand programming, shifting electronic health records and getting more insight on falls, medication management and creating dashboards that allow staff to communicate with families and caregivers more easily, Morrison said.
“It is changing and making us get very specific to each resident and not be such broad strokes,” Morrison added.
This shift has forced Senior Lifestyle to realign what the daily rhythm of a memory care community looks like, while forcing the company to take a “hard look” at the memory care program to rebrand it and update it.
“We needed to rebrand and redevelop and review all aspects of the Embrace program to make sure we were meeting these new needs,” Morrison said.
‘Gearing up’ for the boomers
Morrison said the effort to evolve the company’s memory care program is in preparation for “gearing up for the baby boomers,” noting that demand for senior living will continue to swell in the coming years.
This puts operators in a pivotal moment to revamp programming and operations to meet future demand with improved care services and lifestyle programming.
“We’ve gotten a glimpse of how much higher the acuity is going to look five years from now and we’re able to pivot and really focus on what we need to do to be ready for this demand that’s shaped by acuity,” Morrison said.
As acuity creeps up, staffing burnout has increased, Morrison said. Senior Lifestyle’s leaders believe the new dementia practitioner certification will help improve training and give staff more resources to solve daily challenges in operations.
Layering in technology, supported by artificial intelligence (AI), is a priority in being able to improve resident fall detection and create insights for caregivers based on resident data to streamline care delivery, Morrison said.
Another shift to improve staffing centered on keeping memory care staff in memory care settings to build continuity and relationships with memory care residents. That’s been coupled with a career advancement program to help caregivers climb up the community ranks in a bid to reduce turnover, Morrison noted.
These challenges in staffing come as expectations of families and residents have changed, and the Covid-19 pandemic has shown Senior Lifestyle and other operators the need to increase their assisted living and memory care operations.
“We’ve totally flipped the script as an industry on what the expectations coming through the door are,” Morrison said. “We have to lean in to supporting caregivers and families and that’s how we’ve changed our operations to meet that demand.”
To further improve operations, Morrison said the senior living industry needs to put a greater emphasis on mental health services and the industry must take a “healthier approach to mental health” and focus on medication management and care coordination.The company is looking to fully analyze resident care coordination to identify areas to further improve personalized memory care.
This starts at admission and assessment of a resident, and establishes care coordination and medication management in a more detailed manner, while also conducting assessments more frequently to adapt care as needed, Morrison said.
“If we just continue to build on those things, working with the workforce trying to figure out what that’s going to look like over the next five years,” Morrison said. “I think technology is going to help put the pieces together for us and that’s going to be a game-changer.”