Senior Living Providers Underperform on Communication with Family, New Research Shows

A version of this article appeared in McKnight's Senior Living under the title "Improve family satisfaction by making just a few changes" on October 24, 2019. You can link to it here.

As people age, they naturally need more and more help taking care of themselves – and having someone standing-by in case of emergency can be the difference between life and death.

However, families may be challenged to adequately care for their loved-ones at home, so they often support their decision to move to a senior living community. They may even take an active role in the selection and financial decision-making process.

In making this transition to a senior living community, older people want to retain as much autonomy as possible, while their adult children want the peace of mind that comes from knowing their parents are safe and doing well. Family caregivers believe, often incorrectly, that the communities are keeping an eye on their parents and will contact them with updates. And while senior living communities typically have at least one social worker or similar role to provide support when needed, their staffing model is not designed for ongoing daily monitoring and communication.

Until now, most consumer research that benchmarks senior living communities has focused on the perspectives of their residents, while the views of family caregivers have been under-appreciated. Yet, these family caregivers have great influence on the reputation of a senior community, which can in turn impact admissions and retention, as well as how staff is spending their precious time.

Constance, the company I cofounded to help seniors live independently, recently conducted a comprehensive consumer research study to understand this missing perspective. We surveyed 400 family caregivers to understand their perception of eldercare providers, including frustrations and preferences related to senior living providers. Here is a preview of some of what we learned.

The research reveals that less than half of family caregivers are satisfied with the amount and timeliness of the information they receive from senior living communities. Interestingly, family caregivers are just as concerned with the communication they experience as they are with the quality of care their loved one’s receive on a daily basis.

Family caregiver dissatisfaction stems from misaligned expectations. They expect a certain level of communication from staff despite the level of care their loved ones are receiving within the community. And while it may seem unfair, this reality can lead to broader issues including:

• Unhappy Families Demand More Attention -- Anxious family members contact staff more frequently, resulting in more follow-ups and ultimately higher staffing costs.
• Negative Impact on Brand -- Unhappy family caregivers are vocal. Just a few poor reviews can result in a bad reputation.
• Risk of Losing Residents -- Family caregivers have major influence on residents’ decisions to make a change.

With communication playing such an important role for families, management at life plan communities should pay attention to the risks of overlooking these influential stakeholders. But as management of senior living providers know, constraints caused by workflow gaps and overtaxed resources aren’t easily fixed. The daily activities for staff don’t generally include routine updates to residents’ families and, since staff are stretched thin, any time spent updating families is rushed or requires taking time away from other required tasks.

Fortunately, senior living providers can improve family satisfaction by making just a few changes including:

• Set Communications Protocols -- Share information on preferred communication channels (e.g., phone, text, emails) and include a regular check-in on those channels in the staff’s workflow, so consistent communication will feel more routine.
• Create Responsiveness Standards -- Ensure staff know the specified time frame that’s expected for a response (e.g., 24 hours) and share these expectations with families.
• Share Proactively -- Communities should send information before families ask for it and include contextual information in several categories (e.g., scheduled activities and appointments) that gives them the bigger picture.

We created Constance to help seniors live independently by increasing their social engagement, creating reliable communication among caregivers and lowering the cost of care. We use insights from our proprietary consumer research to help our life plan community partners improve the quality and efficiency of their communications with family caregivers. To learn more, please contact me at henry@constance.one.

If you found this article interesting or relevant to someone you know, please pass it on.

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W. Henry Yaeger is CEO and Cofounder of Constance.

Read my earlier articles:

Helping Seniors Preserve Who They Want To Be

I'm Proud To Announce Constance, A New Venture With Purpose

What’s Next: A Business That Matters

About Constance

Constance is a subscription service for seniors living independently. Caregivers get peace of mind knowing that their loved one is safe and happy through digital updates, while seniors retain their autonomy, increase their social engagement, and lower their cost of care. For more information on Constance, please visit www.constance.one or call 717.500.1386.