November 6, 2023

Making Moves: The Benefits of Memory Care for Patients, Their Families and Their Providers

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Moving from a private home into an assisted living or memory care community is a significant change for patients and their families. And while choosing to make the move can be a difficult decision, there are many benefits for patients, their loved ones and their providers to consider. This is especially true when it comes to memory care. Brookdale sat down with Amy Loomis, DNP, AGNP-C, director of population health at Bloom Healthcare, and Danielle Whitacre, M.D., family medicine physician and medical director for Bloom Healthcare, to discuss these benefits.

1. What benefits are there for a patient who chooses to move into a memory care community?

Amy Loomis, DNP, AGNP-C: The benefit to the patient is that they can be in a safer environment. They also have the benefit of a supportive care setting where there are limited disruptions that could cause an exacerbation of their dementia or cause them to be unsettled or unfamiliar with their environment. And for someone with dementia, that is huge. That is a major distinction. Keeping the environment familiar is an important part of helping to successfully provide care to people with memory deficits.

Danielle Whitacre, M.D.: It’s important to recognize that Brookdale memory care can help administer medications safely to patients who are unable to do that for themselves. They’re also able to assist in activities of daily living, and guide and cue patients to do things such as dressing themselves, getting them to meals, making sure they’re toileting appropriately, and encouraging intake of fluids to ensure they don’t become dehydrated. Then there are activities that engage the residents in their environment — I think that’s really important for well-being: to be able to have your patient engage with activities to enrich their life, to improve their quality of life.

2. What benefits are there for the provider should their patient move into an assisted living or a memory care community?

Amy Loomis, DNP, AGNP-C: Getting the right resources to patients who are in a private home when they have significant memory deficits is very resource-intensive. There are barriers to getting the care they need in the home that the provider, the interdisciplinary care team, the social work team and the nurses are all working to provide, but there can be limited availability of those resources in some geographic areas. Some areas don’t have the staffing for private home caregiving. So, moving someone into a setting where they’re getting the care they need, right where they live, allows the provider to focus on providing that patient with education, addressing any needs that come up, and attending to acute and chronic concerns instead of needing to play multiple different roles.

Danielle Whitacre, M.D.: We often see that certain medical goals cannot be met when our patients’ basic care needs are not met. Sometimes that looks like not getting the medications that we’re prescribing because they’re unable to administer them themselves. And in those scenarios, you need to refer them to resources that can administer their medicines for them. An assisted living environment is a good way to make sure their medications are managed — on top of a variety of other things that might not be happening as well as they should be at home. As a provider, you can know and trust that the medications you prescribe have been administered and that those personalized care needs have been met. It also gives you confidence knowing that your patient is engaging in activities that will help with their well-being.

3. How can moving into a memory care community help a patient’s family?

Amy Loomis, DNP, AGNP-C: It is tremendously difficult to provide care for someone with memory deficits in a private home. Caregiver burnout is a real problem, and it’s something that causes strain on families and their finances. Having a loved one live in a memory care setting can help lift the weight of responsibilities on the caregiver, who is often a family member, and transfer it to staff members who are specially trained and who provide daily personal care. That way, you can go back to being the daughter, the wife, the husband, the family member — instead of being that care provider. They’re able to go back to being that loved one, to spend time connecting.

Danielle Whitacre, M.D.: I’ve been involved in cases where families, very well-meaning, wanted the best for their mom but were hesitant to ask for help and resistant to moving their mom into a memory care living environment. I’ve followed those patients and continued having a relationship with those family members who were tasked with making that decision. And I can tell you that, in many cases, looking back, they wish they had done it sooner. They see what kind of care Mom or Dad is getting now that they’re in assisted memory care living environment. It’s allowed them to have a different relationship with their loved one because now the responsibility of caring for every basic need has been lifted. Now, they can come and visit with Mom or Dad and engage with them in different ways that they didn’t have time to do before. They were too busy with the basic caregiving, the laundry, the meal preparation, and all those things that take a lot of time and take away from having really meaningful interactions.

4. What are the benefits of the way that care is handled at a Brookdale memory care community?

Amy Loomis, DNP, AGNP-C: A Brookdale memory care community helps provide patients and families with peace of mind — they know there are staff members who are with their loved one who know how to deal with some of the more challenging aspects of memory impairment. That can be the most anxiety-inducing and scary part of memory loss and dementia for patients and their families. And knowing that the people interacting with their loved one know how to speak to them, provide care, and connect to them in a way that’s going to help maintain their dignity and their autonomy as much as possible is huge for patients and their families.

Danielle Whitacre, M.D.: Brookdale helps a provider like me get the information I need to care for my patients. When I’m attending to medication administration and making those observations that I need to adjust medications and decide if we need to alter the plan of care — or decide if we need to obtain tests, lab work or imaging — the team at Brookdale can give me the information that I need to make those decisions. Because my patient can’t necessarily remember to report certain key aspects of what’s happening with their health, I need to trust that a team can make those observations and get those to me. The staff at Brookdale really are my eyes and ears to give me the information that I need to make key medical decisions.

5. What should a family look for in a memory care community?

Amy Loomis, DNP, AGNP-C: When families are looking at potential memory care communities, I think it’s always important to consider, what does it feel like when you’re there? Do you see people engaging with one another, and do you see staff members engaging with individuals who are there in the dining room or the living room? How do they talk to those residents? How do they interact? You want to feel like it’s how you would treat your family, and, really, that’s what I see when I visit some of these communities — it’s that sense of it being a living room, being a dining room and speaking to one another with love and respect, and it’s very easy to feel that and see that when you witness it.

Danielle Whitacre, M.D.: You really want to engage with the community that you’re considering for your loved one. Talk to the staff, visit and see what the activities are like. See how the other residents are engaging with the staff. I think it’s really important to feel comfortable and confident in the team that you’re choosing to care for your loved one.

Amy Loomis, DNP, AGNP-C, received her undergraduate degree from the University of Florida and her Adult Gerontological Primary Care Nurse Practitioner degree from the University of Colorado Anschutz. As the director of population health at Bloom Healthcare, she loves to empower her patients and their families to make healthcare decisions that support their unique goals and wishes.

Danielle Whitacre, M.D., has more than 20 years of experience caring for underserved patient communities, including more than 10 years spent delivering house calls. She currently serves as chief medical officer for Bloom Healthcare, where she leads Bloom’s efforts to help older adults live as independently and comfortably as possible. She is passionate about practicing medicine in a way that honors the values of the individual.

Your patients need your recommendation. To learn more about Brookdale Senior Living services, contact a representative today.

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