If you’ve never lived in an assisted living community before, you may think to yourself, “What would I do with all of my free time? Will I just sit around and play bingo or read?” At Highgate at Temecula Assisted Living Community, life enhancement coordinator, Maria Mendez, makes sure there is a lot more to it than that. 

Her position, often referred to as an activities director, means she gets up close and personal with many residents and even prospective residents, learning their wants, needs and interests so she can customize the recreation and activities program offered at the community.

Creating Programs Driven by Resident Interests

“I get to know the residents, and find out what they are like,” she says. The better her relationships are with residents, the more informed she can be in her work. It’s her goal to learn as much as she can about the seniors, and find ways of directing them into activities that will entertain, engage and even fulfill them.

The process of getting to know the residents at Highgate is both formal and informal.  Prospective residents are interviewed prior to moving to the community to learn about their life story and interests. 

Once a resident moves in, the move in coordinator completes a more in-depth interview with them, learning their likes, dislikes, personality traits and more. “It helps you draw out other things they might enjoy,” Mendez says. “Activities are the biggest part of their schedule. You don’t want them to just be staying in their rooms and staring out the window, or watching TV all day.”

Additionally, attendance to activities is tracked, and as new residents move in, the activities program is assessed to identify additional activities they can add to the schedule. 

Many residents enjoy activities that allow them to give back to the local community.  One way of doing that is to take a simple task that they enjoy, and put some meaning behind it. Take knitting or crocheting, for example. As the Temecula assisted living community life enhancement coordinator, Mendez might suggest they make blankets to donate to a children’s hospital or an animal shelter. “That gives them a goal. ‘Oh, I’m making this for someone,’ and at the same time, they’re giving back to the community.”

Leveraging Technology to Update Recreation Program

Based on some of the information Mendez receives from interviews, she can start to identify ways for each resident fill up their calendar with enjoyable pastimes. Their entire calendar for each month is uploaded and families are able to use an app called Sagely to see what activities their parent is participating in.  No more dropping in unexpected only to find mom is way too busy to meet you!

“Sometimes their families ask, ‘What have you been doing?’ and they might say ‘nothing,’ but the family can say ‘well, that’s not possible — I saw pictures,’” Mendez says.

Pictures at the events can be taken and uploaded to the app for families to see.

The Sagely App also helps Highgate collect valuable data. By being able to view what kinds of activities are highly attended, or most popular, and which might need some retooling, Highgate has created an agile activities program that grows with each new resident moving into the community.  Attendance is tracked per activity and per resident making modification of the program data-driven.

Highgate believes the secret to living well, well into old age is engagement. Helping residents find meaning and purpose through daily activities.