Emphasizing Life Enrichment on the Home: Living Life to the fullest

One program to highlight in Welcome Home is Living Life to the Fullest. This is part of the life enrichment initiative. Every week residents choose the activities, whatever they suggest, and staff work to make them happen. Greenbrier’s Life Enrichment Guides organize and run the Live Life to the Fullest weekly meetings. “We ask questions like what do you like to do? What would make this feel like home to you? Then we tailor their care to them. It is not a blanket approach for everyone. You make your own choices,” explains Angela Terrell, Event Coordinator, and Life Enrichment Guide at Greenbrier Assisted Living.

The program is named Living Life to the Fullest simply because that is the goal. The staff here are passionate about encouraging residents to enjoy daily life. “They still have life to live, they are still entitled to that life, and we want them to have the best quality of life they can,” says Angela. “Often, they have been alone for some time when they move in. They have lost the idea that life is still fun. They can still enjoy and find new things to do, new hobbies!”

“With these meetings, life got full,” remarks Mike Weatherford. “They had choices where they did not have choices before. The whole environment aesthetically began to feel more like home. There is nothing better than taking care of happy people. With Welcome Home, attitudes changed, and the whole atmosphere just lit up.” Meagan Mathers, Infection Prevention and MDS Manager at Greenbrier Village, says the most significant evidence of change is in the residents. “I had a resident today talking to someone in the clinic, and she said, ‘I want to go home.’ He responded, ‘Oh no, you live here now,’ and she said, ‘I know, I need to go to my room to nap.’ They truly do feel like it is home.”

It is their home. It is their life. Weatherford, Mathers, Long, and Thorpe say their job is to help them live it.