Larry Carlson - To The Enclave

Website: https://umcommunities.org/ WORKING BOOK TITLE - To the Enclave: A Journey to a New Mode of Dementia Care A book by Larry Carlson To the Enclave: A Journey to a New Mode of Dementia Care is a book by Larry Carlson, CEO of United Methodist Communities (UMC), one of America’s largest non-profit operators of nursing homes and senior living communities. His book describes UMC’s journey in pioneering a new approach to memory and dementia care in the USA. The innovative Hogewey dementia village model based in the Netherlands served as the catalyst that inspired Enclave’s embrace of memory care. To the Enclave offers Carlson’s unique, personal process of discovering how to optimize day-to-day living for people and their families experiencing challenges around the growing dementia care crisis in the US. Carlson has had an epiphany, resolving to bring new elements of joyful and humane dementia care to eldercare communities. Sharing compelling stories of families touched by dementia, Carlson shares how caring for a loved one can become an impossible and poignant challenge, even for families with abundant financial resources for home care. Larry begins with the premise that “there is a better way to do things,” and explains how he has called upon his decades of experience and faith to bring the Enclave concept to life. Enclave takes the best of Hogewey and expands it into an American version of a compassionate memory care village that represents an entirely new way of providing care for people with dementia. The evolution of this “new way” contrasts with our traditional “institutional” idea of elderly care models, what all agree is an outdated hospital-based approach. Enclave celebrates a new idea of an open “village” space where residents live in 7-person houses and have relaxed and comfortable access to amenities including a dedicated supermarket, café, a music room and an inviting community space. Enclave embraces people with dementia, allowing them the dignity and joy to “live the life they love,” as Carlson explains it. As they go through their day, residents hear the word “yes” more than “no,” a departure from limitations of outdated, institutional settings. In their village, people will experience butterfly gardens and all aspects of life as they had before illness. They will have the opportunity to thrive in safety and harmony with nature and the professionals who care for them – an existence that happily weaves the tapestries of their life experiences into the next chapter. This in contrast to being forced to adapt to an unfamiliar, structured institutional environment. This kinder, more human approach is superior in terms of quality of life, reducing the need to medicate and restrain dementia residents. For Carlson, Enclave is more than just a new project for UMC. It is nothing less than an initiative to lead the transformation of how we think about the entire dementia care field. The book discusses how UMC plans to turn the idea of Enclave into a “care industry-wide movement for change” for this growing and vulnerable population. TOPIC AS IT RELATES TO YOUR SHOW: He is both writing a book about the dementia village he is building in New Jersey to show that we don't have to institutionalize our Alzheimer family members the same way anymore. We Would love your feedback!