Press Release

Linked Senior is advancing the resident engagement field by releasing a first-of-its kind white paper on the state of senior care resident engagement in 2019.

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 22^nd, 2019:

Linked Senior (www.linkedsenior.com), a resident engagement platform for the senior care market, announced today the release of a white paper analyzing the current state of resident engagement in the United States.

In 2019 and early 2019, Linked Senior conducted hundreds of surveys and analyzed discussions with industry experts, direct care staff members and residents to understand the current state of resident engagement and to identify opportunities to provide better care and experience to older adults living in senior care communities.

According to Lynne Katzmann, Ph.D., the Founder and President of Juniper Communities, “Resident engagement is today’s most untapped opportunity for enhancing person-centered care, increasing quality of life for residents and improving business indicators.”

Resident engagement is defined as the function to provide meaningful and purposeful stimuli or occupation to someone that cannot self-recreate or pursue their own leisure, preferences or interest.

Current literature supports the fact that optimizing resident engagement helps with quality of life and improving clinical and financial outcomes. However, it wasn’t until recently that this link has been made stronger, in part thanks to a Linked Senior research study on resident engagement which was funded by the Baycrest-led Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), in partnership with Responsive Health Management (RHM) and Western Oregon University. Linked Senior worked with RHM in Toronto on this study using a quasi-experimental repeated-measures design at three RHM long-term care and memory care communities.

RHM residents participating in this study were grouped either in a high-engagement or a low-engagement category. When comparing the two groups, being in the high-engagement group was associated with:

• 20% decrease in antipsychotic medication use
• 18% decrease in aggressive behaviors
• 20% increase in social engagement
• 3% increase in cognitive functioning

In other words, being highly engaged in recreational activity is associated with increased cognitive functioning and social engagement, as well as decreased aggression and antipsychotic medication use. The data is based on a total sample size of n =185 residents (Low engagement n = 75, High Engagement n =110). An infographic outlining the research results is available here.

“We are proud to be contributing to the field,” says Charles de Vilmorin, Linked Senior CEO, “We think some of these findings made sense with current observations but others were deeply provoking. Most of them are actually very actionable which proves that we are at an interesting tipping point for the industry.”

About Linked Senior

Headquartered in Washington D.C., Linked Senior Inc. is the leading resident engagement platform for the senior care market. Its cloud based solution improves the quality of life or residents, empowers front line staff with evidence based program while improving the bottom line of providers with better care, better satisfaction and increased family engagement. More information can be found here: www.linkedsenior.com