Decentralized Decisions: Jamming with Residents

Shaping Dementia Environments

In this episode we discuss an important operational trend in care environments: decentralized decision-making and resources. The goal of this approach to put decision-making as close to the resident as possible. But how does one go about doing that? What are the related opportunities and barriers?

Our first interview is with Jude Rabig, a nationally recognized leader, speaker, and change agent who served as the first Executive Director of the National Green House Project. She assisted in shaping the model of care and leading the implementation of the first Green Houses in Tupelo, Mississippi. Through her company Rabig Consulting, she provides customized change consultations to help communities develop innovative strategies for change in long term care. She has worked with scores of organizations nationally and in Canada to develop small house communities. In addition to providing Small House consulting nationally, she also founded and leads Lifespace Senior Services based in Schenectady, NY to provide home and community based clients with support for their holistic well-being with an emphasis on thriving despite limitations or frailty. She has served in many roles including Director of the Office for Aging and Continuing Care in Oneida County New York and Professor of Gerontology at Utica College. In each of these positions she has worked tirelessly, exhibiting a commitment to fighting ageism, and championing programs and practices that support autonomy, dignity and enhanced quality of life for older adults. She is a former Atlantic Philanthropies, Hartford Foundation Practice Change Fellow, and a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Adviser. She holds a PhD in gerontology and a business certificate from Stanford School of Business.

Then, we speak with Carrie Chiusano. She has 36 years of long-term care experience with Presbyterian SeniorCare Network, many of which were spent helping to shape and implement the Woodside Place philosophy of specialty care for persons living with Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias. Prior to being appointed Executive Director for the Presbyterian SeniorCare Network Dementia Care Center of Excellence in January 2016, Carrie served for five years as the Administrator for Woodside Place of Oakmont, which opened in 1991 and was one of the nation’s first dementia-specific residential community specifically designed to meet the holistic needs of older adults living with Alzheimer’s and related dementias. In her leadership of the dementia Center of Excellence, Carrie is responsible for the integration of dementia care services across the various settings that comprise the Network as well as the family caregivers coping with the disease. In addition to her service on numerous, industry association boards, Carrie has become a certified trainer for the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners in dementia care.

Our last conversations is with Damian Utton, who has been with Pozzoni Architecture since 1997 and is now a Director, bringing his wealth of experience in design for older people to his co-ordination and leadership of research and development at the firm. In the late 2000’s, he spent a sabbatical touring and researching more than 100 dementia environments around the world, and the findings became his book: ‘Designing Homes for People with Dementia’. He subsequently has authored and co-authored books on designing for older people and people with dementia and writes frequently for the care press.

Continue the conversation in our LinkedIn group Shaping Dementia Environments.

Check it out at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9044567/