BSA Design for Aging Committee Meeting
January 17, 2012
Speaker: Elissa Sherman, PhD, President of LeadingAge Massachusetts
Topic: Massachusetts Culture Change Coalition: Changing the Culture of Long Term Care in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Culture Change Coalition is a broad-based coalition dedicated to advancing initiatives to create person centered care and culture change within long-term care and aging services. The Coalition is made up of representatives from provider organizations, consumer advocacy organizations, government organizations including DPH, CMS and EOEA, Quality Improvement Organizations and Educational organizations.
Over the past six years the Culture Change Coalition has led efforts to advance person-centered care in long term care through education, newsletters and other outreach efforts. In addition, a subgroup of the Coalition has been involved with reviewing the Massachusetts licensure regulations with the purpose of identifying regulatory barriers to person-centered care and innovative models of long term care including small house nursing homes. Elissa Sherman, president of LeadingAge Massachusetts (formerly MassAging) and a founding member of the Culture Change Coalition discussed the Coalition’s history, goals and activities including:
· The history, purpose and function of the Massachusetts Culture Change Coalition
· The goal of promoting “Culture Change” within the long term care industry, defined as the transformation of an organization from an institutionalized focus to individualized orientation with the goal of positively affecting residents, staff and family. The Culture Change transformation is envisioned as holistic in nature and seeks the highest practicable physical, mental and psychosocial well-being for all.
· Various efforts underway in Massachusetts and nationally to expand person-centered care, culture change and innovative models such as Small House/ Green House ®
· Specific regulatory issues that are potential barriers to person-centered care and the development of small house nursing homes, such as restrictions on nursing personnel in performing certain jobs, regulations surrounding meal preparation and dining, construction and life safety codes as currently written, and nursing home reimbursement
· Possible strategies to reducing barriers to the development of person-centered care and innovative models of long term care