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Assisted Living / Art Programs Performance Data
Some evidence that investments in art programs have a positive impact on assisted living facilities include additional revenue generation streams, more venue for cost savings and cost recoveries, the fulfillment and delivery of the facilities’ mission, higher rates of occupancy, and reduced labor costs for direct care workers.
1. Fulfills and delivers the facilities’s mission
- Results from various studies corroborate to indicate that engaging in social activities, volunteering, arts programs, health education/lifestyle programs, volunteering, social activities, arts programs, as well as lifelong learning lead to higher levels of health, life satisfaction, and sensations of wellbeing.
- According to an ICAA survey involving 472 senior living communities, the terms wellness, quality of life, wellbeing, or lifestyle were present in an organization’s mission statements, regardless of if they operate as for-profit or non-profit communities.
- Assisted living facilities presenting arts programs to residents provided them with perceptions of wellbeing, life satisfaction, and health, thus helping them to accomplish their mission statements.
2. Generates revenue
- Program expenses are typically taken care of through an allocation involving residents’ association or service fees. Since a wellness program grants a superior level of service, administrators can impose a higher charge.
- Wellness employees that apply therapy produce, indirectly, reimbursement revenue. Also, they help with move-ins stemming from their guidance in helpful and engaging projects.
- Due to art or wellness initiatives, individuals are healthier and in less need of nursing care. Therefore, there are more unoccupied beds that can be of use to private-pay patients from the broader population and produce revenue.
- Direct revenue streams include resident fees for individual training or specialized sessions and nonresident fees for membership to specific programs.
- Some indirect revenue streams include the funds gathered from special events, along with campaigns managed by the wellness team, as well as move-ins following marketing operations.
3. Cost Savings and Cost recovery in Healthcare
- Individuals aged 65 and up that partake in "weekly participatory art programs" controlled by trained artists usually have excellent mental and physical health, fewer visits to the doctor, and use less medication. Hence, there is a significant effect on the savings associated with health care and health promotion expenses.
- Cost recovery can usually be gained from both nonresidents and residents that cover the charges for transportation, food, or cultural ventures such as visits to plays or museums; community groups like older adults centers and hospitals that help pay the cost of wellness employees administering programs; donations from community funds or tenants cover costs of major purchases and grant funding to implement a particular program.
- Cost savings can be achieved through labor hours contributed by volunteers coordinated by wellness staff members; wellness interns offering the dual benefit of additional workers at an insignificant charge; sponsorships and donations from outside businesses for giveaways and marketing materials, water, T-shirts, and other items; and :in-kind partnerships" with local companies such as shoe stores, universities, travel firms, and pharmacies that give education and information free of charge, saving expenses associated with materials or speakers.
4. High rates of occupancy
- About 44% of residents under a CCRC/life plan involved in benchmark wellness operations either agree or strongly agree that the wellness program is a principal reason they selected the community.
- At least "43% of IL or IL/AL residents" involved with benchmark wellness programs either agree or strongly agree that the wellness program is a fundamental reason they preferred the community.
- Also, residents that endured the advantages of the program recommend the community or facility through word of mouth referrals displayed by sales and marketing campaigns, which leads to improved rates of occupancy and move-ins.
5. Reduces the labor and the labor cost for direct-care workers
- Budgets for labor costs devoted to direct care operators are diminished due to adequate wellness programs that sustain the residents’ functional capabilities, which results in less assistance from the employees.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
We gathered our evidence by scrutinizing a business case study conducted by the International Council on Active Aging, which provided both qualitative and quantitative information centered on Canada and the United States. In the study, the term 'wellness' was utilized to refer to programs that offer optimal health and quality of life to aging residents. The majority of the programs were conducted with seven different dimensions of wellness - social and spiritual, professional/vocational, physical, intellectual/cognitive, environmental, and emotional- of which contained activities closely related to arts programs. Some examples include:
- Social - clubs, volunteering, dancing, group and inter-generational activities, travel
- Environmental - meditation gardens, walking paths, community design, experiencing nature