What is Resident-Directed Care?

In my last couple of postings I wrote about resident-directed care, also known as person-centered care. For those who may not be familiar with what resident-directed care is, I thought I'd try to give readers a short explanation and a few examples in this posting.

Resident-directed care is addressed in Eden Alternative Principle #8: "An Elder-centered community honors its Elders by de-emphasizing top-down bureaucratic authority, seeking instead to place the maximum possible decisions-making authority into the hands of Elders or into the hands of those closest to them." Please note that I use the word "residents" instead of the Eden Alternative word "Elders" as I believe that "residents" is all encompassing of the individuals we serve since not all of the people who live at Hale Makua would consider themselves to be an "elder".

How we refer to people who reside at Hale Makua has also been a hotly debated topic by the Luana Core Team. Should we use the word "Elders" as the Eden Alternative does, or is "residents" more appropriate for the diversity ages of those who live here. In the end we decided that the most Luana thing to do would be to place the "decision-making authority" in the hands of the residents.

Another example of person-centered care is something as simple as letting residents choose their afternoon activity. Last week Wednesday I had asked the Wailuku Activities Director, Lynsey, to take some photos of the residents making bread, which I thought was the scheduled afternoon activity. Of course with my one track food mind I read "bread making", not "bead making", where residents make jewelry from beads. Lynsey went on to explain that the residents had decided that they would rather sing karaoke instead of making beaded jewelry.

My final example of resident-directed care can be found in our Gardenia Neighborhood, where short-stay/rehab residents can order room service.The Gardenia Neighborhood has menus with a variety of food options and a phone that connects directly to the kitchen. Residents can order from the menu and have items delivered directly to their room.