Encourage Good Behavior in Your Assisted Living Facility
Sep 12, 2024
Creating a good and harmonious environment in a residential assisted living facility is important for the well-being of all residents and employees. This blog explores effective ways to encourage good conduct among residents. By cultivating an attitude of respect, cooperation, and understanding, we can improve the general quality of life in the community.
Understanding the significance of developing positive behaviors is crucial. Positive behaviors promote order, lower conflict, and make each resident feel appreciated and respected. Encouraging positive interactions and habits will create a more supportive and cohesive society where everyone may thrive and enjoy daily activities with minimal disruption.
We will explore multiple strategies and approaches for motivating and reinforcing positive behaviors among residents. We will discuss various practical alternatives, including developing reward systems, planning engaging activities, and giving tailored support. By sharing our ideas and experiences, we intend to provide helpful advice to caregivers and administrators, resulting in a more peaceful and supportive atmosphere.
Check out the video, too:
The Challenge of Behavioral Management
Individuals who transfer to assisted living may experience a considerable decline in freedom, perhaps leading to behavioral issues. Adults, like children, may exhibit disruptive behaviors when they experience a lack of control or a sense of restriction. While this is not an exact example, it does highlight the intricate relationships that caretakers must manage in these situations.
Strategies for Encouraging Good Behaviors
1. Communication and Education
Regular and open interaction with residents makes them feel respected and heard in the community.
Regular communication fosters trust and rapport and goes a long way toward avoiding misunderstandings.
It is important to explain the reasoning behind particular rules and standards to residents. For example, we should explain how certain acts, such as flushing paper towels, can obstruct the plumbing system.
Visual aids such as signs and reminders can reinforce these explanations, particularly because some seniors may be experiencing cognitive loss. Furthermore, it is critical to create an environment in which residents feel comfortable asking questions and seeking clarification. Encouraging questions can help guarantee that everyone understands the rules and feels like a part of the community.
2. Positive Reinforcement
Verbal praise is a strong technique for acknowledging and celebrating residents who obey the rules. Positive reinforcement has been proven to be an effective motivator for encouraging good behavior and can help to create a positive living environment. Additionally, encouraging peer support among residents can be beneficial. Encouraging residents to support one another and developing amicable peer relationships can positively affect behavior, sometimes more effectively than professional involvement. This can help foster a positive community in the residential setting.
3. Environment and Accessibility
Ensure that the environment is conducive to inhabitants following rules by implementing practical solutions, such as strategically placing wastebaskets close to restrooms to promote correct trash disposal. Eliminate potential causes of confusion by reviewing and removing any extra products, such as paper towels in bathrooms, that are causing problems. Organize periodic meetings to remind residents of the rules and recognize and reward those who consistently follow them.
Bonus Tip: Patience and Empathy
It must be remembered that compassion and empathy are essential when dealing with those who may be experiencing cognitive decline. Residents in their situation may not fully appreciate the repercussions of their conduct. As a result, patience is essential, as is attempting to perceive circumstances from their point of view. Using this method can dramatically improve interactions and outcomes when working with these types of residents.
Final Thoughts
Encouraging positive behaviors in an assisted living facility is a difficult and varied endeavor that necessitates a careful and intentional approach. It entails creating an atmosphere that fosters the autonomy, dignity, and well-being of residents while simultaneously assuring their safety and comfort. To understand individual requirements and preferences, staff, residents, and their families must maintain open lines of communication and collaboration throughout the process. A more peaceful and rewarding living environment can be created by engaging with residents on a daily basis, offering meaningful activities, and giving support suited to their unique needs.
If you found this information helpful, please visit Assisted Living Investing for more resources. Remember to download our free Business Plan Checklist to help you create a successful business plan for your facility.
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Show full transcript 👇
Transcript
00:00:00
hey friend it's Brandon Gustafson and welcome back to the channel in today's video we're going to be getting into the topic of how to encourage your residents to have good behaviors in your residential assisted living facility if you're interested in learning a little bit more about that plus a little story make sure you stick around for today's [Music] video hey friend I'm Brandon Gustafson I own and operate two assisted living facilities and I created this channel to help people just like you learn the ins
00:00:29
and outs of a assisted living welcome to Assisted Living investing before we get into our topic today around how to encourage good behaviors with your residents I wanted to remind you to get over to the website Assisted Living investing. netal we have a link down in the video description below that gets you access to your free underwriting calculator to help you out on your investment Journey so make sure you get over there and get access to that free tool to help you reach your investment goals now let's get into the topic of
00:00:58
today's video again we're talking about how to encourage good behaviors with uh residents at your assisted living facility this is a topic that that honestly can be difficult uh is people go and age into into this phase of Life they are starting to lose control and I don't want to compare adults to toddlers but I think there is there's some comparison that can happen here and so this is not in any way meant to be demeaning I want to clarify that but when you think about what happens when
00:01:32
you tell a toddler that they can't do something they will typically act out and they will act out in a variety of ways they'll throw a fit they will um run around and scream they will do the exact thing that you just told them not to do and they do that out of spite and they do that to kind of combat you and and try to kind of push their boundaries now as people get older and their mind starts to regress they fall into some of those types of Tendencies as well especially if you have somebody that is
00:02:04
moving from a spot where they are independent and they have their own life and they're now moving to an assisted living facility and they have people telling them what to do and how to do things and losing that control can be really hard and sometimes residents will act out I wanted to share a story with you about uh a resident who had this happen they uh I can't recall exactly what um what the behavior was that they were trying to that that we were trying to work with but ultimately we had a
00:02:36
resident that started flushing paper towels down the toilet enough that it kept flooding the toilet and uh it just was getting frustrating for our staff for our administrator for us because we had to buy a lot of toilet paper and and extra um paper towels and calling a plumber out to come and fix and the toilet and all of the things that happen uh when when that occurs and it's frustrating it's frustrating for us it's frustrating for the resident because something's going on in their in their
00:03:08
lives that they feel the need to do these things because they want control and this is the thing that they can control and so there's just kind of this component here of how how are we going to handle that situation so I want to take that story of of a resident flushing paper towels down a toilet and having all the issues that come from that and help kind of coach you through the process of how you can encourage good behaviors in your residence um and I want you to kind of take this information and extrapolate it to your
00:03:39
situation now you might not have a resident that is Flushing paper towels down the toilet but you might um but regardless I think you're going to be able to take a lot of the knowledge from this video and help you out through your process and how to encourage those good behaviors with your residents now one of the top ways that you can improve behaviors is communication and education doing these things is going to help you out through that process so I'm going to talk to you briefly about a few of these
00:04:05
things one is open dialogue with your residents you want to make sure that you are having conversations with them and expressing to them and and just kind of communicating overc communicating making them feel valued and loved next is explain the reasons tell them why they shouldn't be flushing that toilet paper that those paper towels down the toilet it's going to have such a negative impact it's going to impact the plumbing it's going to uh cost us a lot of money um and you want to have those types of
00:04:32
conversations about what is is going on using visual aids is another one because sometimes um using words and things as as people start to cognitively decline they're not going to be able to understand the words and uh and so having signs out there um you know like a circle with uh toilet certain type of paper getting thrown into a toilet or something like that you know that kind of a graphic can really help communicate at your desire for what you need to have happen and and help make sure that that
00:05:04
your residents are doing the things that they need to be having that constant reminder is going to help them um improve their behaviors as well and then encouraging questions you have your resident that is well why why can't I flush the toilet paper down down the toilet you need to you want to have that dialogue you want to have those conversations but if you are running a house that makes them makes your residents feel like they can't ask questions and and need an un level of understanding but you're not there
00:05:33
providing it to them uh they're going to just continue doing those behaviors so you want to be careful with that process and what it looks like and how that's going to work for you next is we're going to talk about a little bit about positive reinforcement now this is the second way that you can encourage those good behaviors and this is through doing positive reinforcement doing things that that if they do good things they get rewards of of some kind you want to recognize ize and celebrate the things
00:06:01
that they do well now if you have this is a specific resident if they're having issues with flushing toilet paper or paper towels down the toilet and they don't do it for a week you want to praise them and say oh you did so good with this thank you so much for listening and following the rules you want to verbally praise them and be excited about it and and really share with them that that you're proud of them for the work that for the things that they were doing correctly it's going to
00:06:27
help them encourage them to do good things you want to encourage peer support and this can come through other residents um and kind of creating a buddy um with your residents so that you have residents that can encourage them to improve or correct behaviors and having that friend and that support and that peer not not not the the staff the caregiver um where it can feel like a different Dynamic where it's coming down to them having it come across with a peer is going to help out and and just
00:06:57
kind of encouraging that that onetoone so if you have a a good resident that is like uh really friendly and and can help you through that process and their understanding and they're not going to blab their mouth about things um that type of a resident can really help you out through the process in creating that peer-to-peer just kind of a good strong encouragement and help you through the process and and helping make good decisions the third one we're going to talk about is environment and accessibility so you
00:07:25
want to make it easy for your residents to follow follow the rules you you don't want to make it hard you don't want to um put barriers in their way you want to make sure that you are giving them good good ways for them to make these good decisions so in in the the story of of helping out with the paper towels you might want to put uh a waist basket next to the toilet um you might want to put up signs that that say things or show pictures of what they're supposed to be doing um those types of things are going
00:07:54
to make it easy for them to have good behaviors you also want to minimize confusion um you might want to take the the paper towels out of the bathroom so that it's not there and they they don't fall into those bad habits uh you might want to you know make some of those changes so that it's just not confusing to the residents and they know what they are supposed to be doing and the situation with the paper towels you want you want to avoid the confusion of just making those things accessible and and
00:08:24
it's just like what do I do with this it's paper I should be putting it in the toilet um when that's really not what you need to do and then the other piece of that is regular reminders if you have uh resident meetings or or you know state of the house meetings or whatever it is that you're doing you might want to put that on your your rotating schedule of things that you need to talk about to make sure that your residents are reminded that they need to not be putting toilet paper or paper towels
00:08:49
into the toilet um and that they should be throwing that into the garbage so you want to make sure that you have regular reminders if it's a one-off situation you might want to have a regular you know you know a weekly or even daily um quick conversation with the resident where you praise them if they do something good and correct them if they do something bad and don't follow the rules so doing that having those regular conversations is going to help I wanted to get into a quick bonus tip as well
00:09:14
and this is patience and empathy you want to understand the perspective of the resident they may be declining cognitively they may not understand um you know what the differences between toilet paper and paper towels are now they may not um comprehend the the consequences of putting paper towels into a toilet and that's going to clog it and cause issues and it's going to require a plumber to come out and and help through the process you need to understand their perspective that they just may not understand that and you
00:09:44
need to help them understand and be patient with them as well and you you really have to exercise patience uh as you're working through people a big reason why residents come into an assisted living facility is they have behavioral issues and dealing with behavioral issues is frustrating for them it's frustrating for you frustrating for your staff frustrating for their family members everybody needs to come to the table and understand that these behaviors are going to happen and we have to work through them and be
00:10:14
supportive and and have a good solid care team in place that's going to help make good choices for the resident and help them out through their process of of living in the assisted living facility need to also just remember that encourage good behaviors is an ongoing process something you're going to have to do with every single resident that you have and multiple times every single resident that you will have this is a part of running and operating an assisted living facility there's a lot
00:10:42
that goes into it and you just have to be patient and consistent with it as you go through that process to recap this video we've been talking about how to encourage residents to have good behaviors and we've been talking about a story about paper towels getting flushed down the toilet and kind of going through the process of how you're going to handle them talking about positive reinforcement patience and empathy and we've also been talking a little bit about uh communication and education and
00:11:11
creating an environment and and creating a making it accessible for them to succeed in their goals if you found this information to be helpful or if you've had a situation that has been rough for you where you've had to in uh to to change help encourage good behaviors with the residents comment that down below I'd love to hear about that what are your stories and share that with us so the group can understand what it's like to run and operate an assisted living facility like the video as well
00:11:37
if it was helpful subscribe and ring the bell so you get notified every time we go do one of these videos on the channel and get over to the website Assisted Living investing. net we got a link down below so you can get access to our free underwriting that your free underwriting calculator to help you through the process does residential Assisted Living sound interesting to you but you don't know how to get started at Assisted Living investing. net we're here to help you through the process start to finish
00:12:01
thanks for watching and have a great [Music] [Music] day
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