Episode 5:8 Penny Cook Talks about Person-Centered Care & Culture Change in Senior Living

Pioneer Networks creates resources and advocates for policy change at the state and federal level to improve the quality of nursing homes, assisted living, and life plan communities. Learn how the non-profit provides resources for senior living communities to create cultures of care by changing the paradigm of aging.

About Penny

Penny is the President and CEO of Pioneer Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to changing the culture of aging and empowering a network of senior living and care communities by fostering person-directed practices and environments. For 30 years, Penny has provided education, training, and advocacy related to the care and support of older people. She worked with the Long-term Care Ombudsman Program in the Denver region, Telligen, the Quality Improvement Organization for Medicare beneficiaries in Colorado, and Colorado Access, a Colorado-based non-profit health plan.

With Pioneer Network, she is working to fulfill her life-long goal of changing the culture of care and support for people as we all grow older. She is passionate about helping us value and respect our own aging as well as those that we serve.

Key Takeaways

• To implement person-centered care, transformation needs to happen at an individual level along with organizational transformation—breaking down siloed departments and flattening the hierarchy so front-line staff are empowered.
• Ageism stems from fear of aging and plays out in senior living in a variety of ways. Pioneer network is working on a project with Virginia Commonwealth University, along with Leading Age and The Eden Alternative, to develop an ageism toolkit for senior living communities.
• Senior living communities should look at marketing materials to determine whether they might be ageist. Are you only showing people that are vibrant and able to walk without assistive devices? Are you not showing anybody in a wheelchair?