Since opening its doors in 1979, Broadmead is the oldest senior life plan community in Maryland. Today it is a dynamic lifestyle community outside of Baltimore providing the full spectrum of senior care on its 94-acre campus. As a community committed to excellence in senior care, Broadmead contracted with Johns Hopkins from a health and wellness and dementia care perspective to leverage their expertise as consultants. After an 18-month consultation with Johns Hopkins, education became a key facet for Broadmead. This led to creating the Center for Excellence in Dementia Care and the Center for Excellence in Health and Wellness. Stacey Young was brought on board in 2015 to lead the Center of Excellence in Dementia Care. “Education is a hallmark for Broadmead, without quality education programming, none of your other facets are going to be successful.” Stacey had long known about NCCDP programs after 15 years prior experience in senior living and wanted to use the curriculum to train at Broadmead. Stacey became a Certified Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Care Trainer (CADDCT) and initially wanted to train in memory care but ended up training everyone at Broadmead from the CEO on down.
“The belief system is that dementia touches our whole campus – the biggest dementia impact is within independent living where we have the largest population.”
Starting in 2017, Broadmead partnered with NCCDP and began monthly training for the entire staff. In total, Stacey and fellow trainer Ann Patterson, CADDCT and VP for Health Services, have trained more than 549 current and former staff. Just this year, they have finally completed training their entire staff, including their college students who work in dining. That turned into an unexpected success. In the main dining room, there are many summer employees from colleges and high schools – and residents can find it hard to be in the public dining room living with cognitive impairment, but the CDP trained staff make the dining room so warm, comfortable, and inviting. One student, who lives with special needs warmed hearts by treating people living with dementia in the same way he wanted to be treated with his unique needs. The person-centered CDP curriculum drives this home. “The interns are so appreciative of the opportunity to receive the training, and if they qualify, they can get certified as part of their internship. It provides great value for both interns and Broadmead.”
When the finance team went through the class, they initially protested wondering how it would apply to them, but it turned into a success. After completing the curriculum, the finance team was appreciative and found they are better able to answer questions and support residents. The marketing team also benefited from the NCCDP curriculum. Stacey remarked “We weren’t thinking the way dementia touches people at an independent living level, but the marketing team, being trained are able to start the conversation before they move in.” It’s not just the non-caregivers that occasionally push back on training. Stacey found the biggest win was with the caregivers with the longest experience. “The win in the classroom is seeing changes or recognition in people who push back stating that they already know what to do – many of which have 30+ years of experience. You can never know enough in the field of dementia.” Future trainings will be focused on new staff. “ This isn’t just checking a box for Broadmead, it’s a commitment to becoming a leader in dementia care by training all staff and certifying all who are eligible.” Broadmead’s commitment also pays for certification and CDP renewals for all staff.
In addition to their internal training, Stacey also teaches the NCCDP curriculum in the community through multiple venues including a Geriatric Workforce Education grant through Johns Hopkins, focused on providing education to communities with limited resources. Through the grant they have trained 143 CDPs in the community. Her goal was first getting it right at Broadmead, and then to train with outside organizations as well, being an educational resource and consultant providing classes 2-3 times per year or more to create more CDPs in the community.
“We see the outcomes in our quality measures and our quality improvements, so it’s never been a question. If we want to be bigger, and want to say we do this well, we can’t afford not to invest in education.”
Broadmead’s commitment to educating such an enormous staff is not to be taken lightly. The classes are for 8 hours, in which staff must be pulled from the floor to complete. “It takes a strong commitment from leadership; the training is a valuable resource, and the time must be made. If you can’t afford to make the time, you must consider the outcomes of your quality measures in terms of falls and behavioral expressions, care needs and more. How are those going to decline or change if you don’t do the training?”
