The Importance of Care Advocacy

About Brookdale Senior Living

Brookdale Senior Living offers multiple care levels for seniors in more than 600 communities nationwide. Brookdale helps you find the right care plan for yourself or your loved one. With amenities such as transportation services, salons and private dining rooms and activities such as gardening, fitness classes and trivia nights Brookdale caters to a wide range of interests and needs.

Care advocates can play a significant role in helping seniors get the care and resources they need in any care setting including senior living. Almost anyone can act as an advocate on behalf of others, including family members, family friends, a trusted coworker, or even a professional advocate. For those who are transitioning from the role of care partner to advocate, there are many opportunities to work in partnership with senior living associates to collectively honor the resident’s or patient’s wants and needs. Successfully transitioning from care partner to care advocate allows for the continuation of active involvement in care decisions.

Brookdale clinicians have seen the benefits having a care advocate can have for seniors who are no longer able to advocate completely on their own. Successful advocacy can include maintaining regular communication with care teams up to multiple times a week, openly sharing observed changes in resident needs or desires, and communicating preferences and beliefs. Having a care advocate is almost always a positive experience for a resident as it increases participation in care planning and action planning, as well as enhancing person centered programming. In a dementia care setting, if a resident is in the advanced stages of the disease, having a care advocate helps give the resident a voice when they may no longer be able to convey their wishes. If the care advocate is someone who knows the resident well, they can provide vital information that assists in developing personalized service plans. And while having a helping hand is usually beneficial, patients and residents should be supported as they continue to advocate on their own behalf as long as they are able to independently.

You can refer a patient to Brookdale and learn more about our services here.

Inside Brookdale Communities

See what’s happening on our community Instagram pages

Chat Now