Brookdale Senior Living Highlights Study on Function-Focused Care
By Michelle Seitzer / Posted on 11 January 2012
In the December issue of Geriatric News, Dr. Kevin O’Neil, an acclaimed geriatrician and Brookdale’s Chief Medical Officer, shared an overview of a recent study published in The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Researchers testing the function-focused care in assisted living (FFC-AL) intervention hoped their efforts would reduce the decline that many seniors in this setting experience. Over the 12-month period of study, researchers hoped the interventions would demonstrate such outcomes as improved mood, resilience, and balance. At the end of the year, they were successful: “Residents…demonstrated less decline in function,” says the piece, and some even “returned to ambulatory status.”
A function-focused care approach, says Dr. O’Neil, requires a change in the wayassisted living staff provide care. Rather than completing basic daily tasks like bathing or dressing (often referred to as ADLs, activities of daily living) for the residents, direct care providers should instead empower them to do as much as they are able, “so that residents could spend more time in physical activity and thus maintain and improve function.”
The perceived and actual loss of independence after a move to assisted living is a major struggle for many seniors, and understandably so. Empowering function and encouraging activity is well worth the effort then, though a shift to an FFC approach takes time (as a major alteration in behavior and practice often does).
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