Senior Resource Group (SRG) is continuing to expand its memory care operation with an eye toward meeting the demand of its future residents.
SRG late last year acquired two communities with memory care neighborhoods and increased the company’s capacity to serve memory care settings at its communities. One of the acquisitions was a life plan community located in Playa Vista, California with over 200 units, building density in the Los Angeles area from its existing Sherman Oaks and North Ridge communities. The second acquisition expanded SRG into a new state, entering South Carolina with the acquisition of a community of over 200 units.
SRG’s memory care units are between 95% and fully occupied, reflecting a need for memory care growth in the months and years ahead, according to Chief Operating Officer Rob Henderson.
“We know that more residents need us and we’re looking at ways through expansion and future acquisition growth in memory care,” Henderson told MCB.
Like other senior living companies, SRG pressed pause on new development in recent years due to conditions making construction difficult to pencil out. When the company does get back into its development groove, Henderson said any new ground-up growth would include memory care.
The Solana Beach, California-based developer and operator also has bolstered its leadership with memory care in mind. The company in February promoted Melissa Dillon, the company’s former corporate director of memory care, to the role of vice president of memory care. Dillon, has been “instrumental” in transforming the company’s Enliven memory care program, which is the company’s proprietary operating model for its high-acuity settings.
In her new role, Dillon, a self-described “dementia nerd,” will oversee memory care operations for the company’s Enliven memory care programs at its communities, working closely to develop training programs and an operational framework to help frontline teams provide memory care services.
Prior to her new role with SRG, Dillon spent years helping SRG communities work through their memory care operations and staff training challenges.
“I want to look at the things that were created as part of this program by operationalizing it and making it feel alive and real,” Dillon told Memory Care Business. “I’m going to take all of that boots on the ground experience and just make sure that I can continue to support folks from that visionary space while understanding exactly what it’s like to be at the community level.”
Dillon’s effort to evolve the Enliven program included making policy changes to ensure greater equity of memory care services for all older adults across the continuum at SRG communities.
That played out by making sure the amenities and offerings for independent living and assisted living residents are available to memory care residents, from dining experiences to shared amenity spaces and in programming, Dillon said.
“I just think that equality is where we have to plant our flag and make sure that we’re duplicating what SRG has to offer within our memory care communities,” Dillon added.
With improvement on staff retention through wage rate growth happening over the last two years, SRG has been able to refine its hiring process and place greater emphasis on candidate selection to bring in the right assisted living and memory care caregivers.
Dillon also spearheaded an effort to build an internal education platform for employees that offers monthly classes with role play of real-life scenarios that have occurred in SRG assisted living and memory care properties to better serve high-acuity residents and improve staffing.
To improve memory care settings, Dillon said senior living operators must move away from what she called “the regression of normalization” of certain programming used within memory care. Case in point, Dillon said, is some operators moving back to using life skill stations or using faux baby dolls for residents to bond with.
“I’m worried that we will have companies coming out with even better murals and stickers resembling bookshelves to cover doors,” Dillon said. “It’s not normal, and our residents are smarter than this. I want us to see these adults as adults have been worried about the regression into these shiny tricks.”
