Memory Care

Bridge to Rediscovery (BTR) is an innovative program offered exclusively at Five Star Senior Living communities since 2007. Recipient of an Assisted Living Federation of America Best of the Best Award, BTR is designed to provide a safe and nurturing environment where seniors living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia can flourish and share a positive life experience.

Montessori-Based Dementia Programming

Using Montessori-inspired techniques, we approach and appreciate each resident from the basis of their strengths, rather than their deficits, and help them retain the essential aspects of their identity – as artists or doctors, mothers or fathers, sports fans or book lovers. The Bridge to Rediscovery program is personalized for each resident, leveraging their strengths in building a foundation of learning and success. When a person diagnosed with dementia begins living in a Five Star community with memory care services, we undertake a comprehensive life review with that individual, asking very detailed questions about what they like, how they do things, and then we develop a customized plan of action to help them function at their highest possible level.

Families are intimately involved in the process. We ask family members to bring in a box of materials that reflect and represent who their loved one is, what they were like and what made them special before they became cognitively impaired. Through recreational and occupational therapy, we can restore some of their functionality; by building on their strengths, we can keep them engaged. For example, if someone loved art, music, or dancing; was a lawyer, doctor, or engineer; or enjoyed sports, gardening, or cooking, we would provide them with relevant books and activities that would interest them.

See firsthand how our award-winning Bridge to Rediscovery program has touched the lives of our residents and their families.

Key Principles of Montessori-Based Dementia Programming

Montessori-Based Dementia Programming (MBDP) was developed by Dr. Cameron Camp; Five Star has four credentialed trainers in MBDP, and our train-the-trainer program ensures that staff at all our communities offering memory care services are adept in the methodology.

8 Key Principles are:

1. Observe the residents to understand their interests, capabilities, strengths and needs
2. Keep verbal instruction to a minimum simple, clear and pleasant
3. There are many “right” ways of doing a program
4. Cue participants, encourage to do the program for themselves, help as indicted
5. Provide immediate and frequent verbal encouragement
6. Build on skills and capabilities
   • Simple to complex and concrete to abstract
   • Work from left to right and top to bottom
7. Use repetition to promote success and positive engagement
8. Use programs that build and help retain skills and capabilities