Organizations and Initiatives
Pioneer Network's website is designed to be a comprehensive and ever-expanding resource for culture change. Our intent is culture change information sharing. As a result, this list is not intended to be inclusive, and our posting of resources and links does not serve as an endorsement or imply that we represent these listings in any manner. To contribute resources, e-mail Amy Elliot at
suggestions@pioneernetwork.net.
Action Pact, Inc. Action Pact, Inc. is a company of trainers, consultants and educators who assist nursing homes and other elder care organizations in becoming resident-directed. They work with clients to redesign the way the organization itself functions, moving from traditional top-down management towards a collaborative effort of self-governing teams.
Almost Home: Changing Aging in America A groundbreaking film that takes you inside the revolutionary transformation of a nursing home. The companion web site pulls back to give you the bigger picture.
Alzheimer's Association Learning Institute The Alzheimer's Association Learning Institute offers a series of core courses on Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. The courses, designed for healthcare professionals, offer the most updated and research validated information about Alzheimer's disease and dementia care.
American Association for Long Term Care Nursing The American Association for Long Term Care Nursing serves all levels of long-term care nursing staff to advance excellence and positive visibility in the specialty of LTC nursing. AALTCN offers educational programs and a certification program for Culture Change Nurse Coordinators.
American Health Care Association (AHCA) A federation of affiliated state health organizations, together representing more than 10,000 non-profit and for-profit assisted living, nursing facility, developmentally-disabled, and subacute care providers that care for more than 1.5 million elderly and disabled individuals nationally.
American Health Quality Association (AHQA) Represents Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) and professionals working to improve the quality of health care in communities across America. QIOs share information about best practices with physicians, hospitals, and nursing homes.
And Thou Shalt Honor Much more than a television series, it is a call to action for the millions of men and women who are, or soon will be, caregivers. Through an extensive outreach program and grassroots action guide, ATSH is building community coalitions to raise awareness of the issues surrounding caregiving.
B & F Consulting B & F Consulting helps providers with the "how" of change by walking people through how to bring staff together, examine daily operations, and systematically reframe and re-organize the day-to-day of nursing home life. B & F customizes services to meet provider needs, whether it be stabilizing staffing, initiating or re-energizing culture change, or building systems to support quality improvement. B & F helps providers build skills and systems to support inclusive leadership, supportive workplace practices and resident-centered caregiving.
Better Jobs Better Care (BJBC) A 4-year research and demonstration program in long-term care policy and practice that seeks to reduce high vacancy and turnover rates among direct care staff across the spectrum of long-term care settings and contribute to improved workforce quality.
Center for Excellence in Assisted Living (CEAL) Fosters access to high quality assisted living by creating resources and acting as an objective resource center to facilitate quality improvement in assisted living, increasing the availability of research on quality in assisted living, and providing a national clearinghouse for information on assisted living.
ConsultGeriRN.org Resource for updated, evidence-based clinical information and assessment tools on a wide variety of important and practical topics, as well as a link to information on nursing education, and staff education.
Direct Care Alliance (DCA) Founded in November 1998, the DCA's mission is to improve the quality of care for consumers through the creation of higher quality jobs and working conditions for direct-care paraprofessional workers. The DCA promotes recognition that direct-care paraprofessionals are the foundation of good care, particularly for long-term care clients.
The Eden Alternative The Eden Alternative® (www.edenalt.org): The Eden Alternative is a training and consulting organization dedicated to helping individuals and organizations embrace and implement culture change across the continuum of care. The Eden Alternative works with elders and their care partners to eliminate the plagues of loneliness, helplessness, and boredom. The Eden Alternative promotes a set of principles and training strategies that transform places where Elders live into places where they live and thrive, not sterile medical institutions where people go to decline. Through its principle-based philosophy and training programs, The Eden Alternative is striving to remake the culture of aging in America and around the world. The Eden Alternative has trained more than 23,000 Eden Associates and has more than 200 Eden Registry homes in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia.
The Eden Alternative Vision: To eliminate loneliness, helplessness, and boredom.
The Eden Alternative Mission: Improving the lives of the Elder and their Care Partners by transforming the communities where they live and work.
Edu-Catering: Catering Education for Compliance and Culture Change Edu-Catering caters education for compliance and culture change to the long-term care continuum via consultation, training at conferences, all-day workshops and webinars for national and state long term care associations, state culture change coalitions, state survey agencies, joint provider/surveyor trainings and state QIOs, and by hosting the monthly web talk show for Action Pact Conversations with Carmen.
Elder Cohousing Network Cohousing is about the pioneering elders recreating a new version of the "old-fashioned neighborhood" - a community where neighbors know one another and help take care of each other. The Elder Cohousing Network provides a full range of services to help elder cohousing groups get started.
The Green House Project The Green House ® Project offers a model for long-term care designed to look and feel like a real home. The Green House model represents deep transformation from the traditional nursing home philosophy, organizational structure and institutional environment to support meaningful lives for elders, empowered staff and a real home. This evidence-based model has been proven — through independent research — to be effective, feasible and sustainable. Through a collaborative process, THE GREEN HOUSE® Project supports the unique culture-change journey of each organization. Success is ensured by support in areas such as finance, regulations and design, as well as through innovative educational programs. Open Green House homes partner with each other and The Green Home Project to sustain transformation and continue to innovate.
IAPS-EDRA Environment & Gerontology Network The environment and gerontology network is concerned with issues related to the diverse effects of physical environments on older individuals. Participants interests are professional, theoretical, research related and design-practice work.
IDEAS Institute A premier resource of information and environment-behavioral research centered on improving care and quality of life for people with chronic forms of physical and cognitive decline, including, but not limited to, Alzheimer's disease.
Institute for Caregiver Education (IFCE) A not-for-profit organization that provides continuing education and professional development opportunities for healthcare professionals, including a variety of literacy, language, and life skills training for entry level staff across all disciplines.
International Council on Active Aging (ICAA) Founded in the belief that unifying the efforts of the organizations focused on older adults benefits both the people they reach and the organizations themselves. Today, the vision is shared by over 5,000 organizations connected to the ICAA network.
LeadingAge A membership organization serving two million people every day through mission-driven, not-for-profit organizations dedicated to providing the services people need, when they need them, in the place they call home.
Long-Term Care Improvement Guide
Developed by Planetree in partnership with Picker Institute, the Long-Term Care Improvement Guide was created in 2010 to propel long-term care communities in their improvement efforts. Informed by focus groups with residents and staff, executive interviews, and a series of site visits to organizations with well-established resident-centered cultures, the Guide features more than 250 concrete strategies for actualizing a resident-directed, relationship-centered approach and demonstrates how culture change makes an impact on operational, clinical and financial outcomes. The featured strategies apply to Independent, Assisted Living, Short-term Rehabilitation and Nursing Home environments and are not specific to any one culture change model. The Guide is designed to supports beginner to advanced resident-centered culture, with a self-assessment tool to help organizations prioritize initiatives and decide where to start and stretch goals that challenge sites to take change efforts to even greater heights. Beyond a compendium of practices, the Guide also examines a defined process for engaging all stakeholders in creating, implementing and anchoring a community vision for change. A myths and facts section dispels many common misconceptions about resident-centered care. Features a foreword by Bonnie Kantor, Executive Director of Pioneer Network, and Commentary by Dr. Bill Thomas.
Mather Lifeways
A unique not-for-profit organization based in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago. We're dedicated to identifying, implementing, and sharing the best practices for wellness, workforce issues, memory care programs, and caregiver empowerment. It's home to the LEAP program -- a comprehensive workforce development program that empowers staff, increases retention, and promotes staff-resident relationships through a model of person-centered care.
National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR) An organization of consumers and advocates who define and achieve quality for people with long term needs. Provides information and leadership on federal and state regulatory and legislative policy development, and helps develop models and strategies to improve care and life for residents of nursing homes and other long term care facilities.
National Gerontological Nursing Association (NGNA): Founded in 1984, NGNA is dedicated to the clinical care of older adults across diverse care settings. NGNA's core purpose is to improve the quality of nursing care given to older adults. Members include clinicians, educators, and researchers with vastly different educational preparation, clinical roles, and interest in practice issues.
National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce A national on-line library for people in search of solutions to the direct-care staffing crisis in long-term care. A project of the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI), the Clearinghouse includes government and research reports, news, issue briefs, fact sheets, and other information on topics such as recruitment, career advancement supervision, workplace culture, and caregiving practices.
NHRegsPlus This searchable website serves as a one-stop location to examine and compare the content of state regulations related to nursing homes, the processes of regulation and exceptions to regulations within a state, recent state changes, innovative nursing-home designs and programs that were accomplished within existing regulations, and innovative state regulatory initiatives.
The Nursing Center: A New Look at the Old The Atlantic Philanthropies awarded two grants to increase the knowledge and skills of those providing care to older adults. Information about the care of those over 65, derived from cutting-edge research and best practices, is now available to nurses and other providers on this website in either print format or streaming video, at any time and at no cost. The American Journal of Nursing (AJN) partnered with the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) to develop this resource providing evidence-based information on the nursing care of older adults.
Palliative Care in Nursing Homes: Steps For Success Key elements of a quality palliative care program; literature review; barriers and ways to overcome them; recommendations for the future (opens as .pdf)
Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI) A non-profit organization working to strengthen the direct-care workforce within our nation's long-term care system through developing innovative approaches to recruitment, training, and supervision; client-centered caregiving practices; and effective public policy.
Planetree The Planetree model of care is a patient-centered, holistic approach to healthcare, promoting mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and physical healing. The Planetree model is implemented in acute and critical care departments, emergency departments, long term care facilities, outpatient services, as well as ambulatory care and community health centers.
Second Wind Dreams A national non-profit organization that fulfills the dreams of those living in eldercare communities, thereby enhancing their lives and changing the perception of aging.
Untie the Elderly An initiative to provide conditions that will foster independence, health and security for older individuals.
Wellspring Program Wellspring is an evidence-based model of culture change that was launched in 1994 that offers education and consultation to help nursing homes affect transformation. Since that time, nursing homes with diverse profiles have used Wellspring to implement lasting changes in clinical and managerial practices that have enhanced the quality of life for nursing home residents and the quality of work for frontline staff.