Senior Living Communities Expands; Creates Wellness Departments for Members

2011-04-26

Senior Living Communities, an owner and operator of retirement communities in the Southeast and Midwest, announced today that the company has expanded to add member wellness departments at each campus. Wellness Directors at each community will oversee the department which houses the company’s nationally recognized wellness program.

Chief Communications Officer Katie Huffstetler says the expansion is the result of a growing demand for solutions to high-cost clinical care which older adults may need later in life.

“We have found that by using tailored wellness programs we can substantially improve the quality and length of our Members’ lives,” Huffstetler said. “Our goal is to offer Members an environment where they can improve their health and independence while potentially preventing a move to a higher level of care in the future.”

Each Senior Living Community features some combination of skilled nursing, assisted living, and Alzheimer’s care services as well as independent living options. Huffstetler says the wellness departments will house programs that are appropriate for older adults with a varying degree of needs.

“One example is our C.L.I.M.B. program which has been shown to improve lower-body strength and walking ability in participants,” she says. “We’re not saying clinical solutions aren’t needed – we’re just saying there may be a way to combine clinical and wellness solutions so that our residents achieve better outcomes.”

In addition to the C.L.I.M.B. program, wellness directors will oversee the expansion of a number of targeted wellness programs in healthcare which focus on improving outcomes associated with negative health events such as fractures or orthopedic replacements, heart failure, C.O.P.D., diabetes, arthritis and Parkinson’s disease.

Huffstetler says the company will also continue to emphasize and create prevention-oriented programming for members who want to improve their health while reducing their chances of suffering a negative health event in the future.

In 2010 and 2011, the Assisted Living Federation of America recognized Senior Living Communities’ wellness programs as the best in the country.