Source: WAVE3
By Sean Baute
August 13, 2019

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – A national conference revolving around advancements in senior care came to Louisville recently. It’s part of a network of facilities looking to work together to make life better for an aging population. Together, they’re tackling problems that don’t happen overnight.

“Nobody wakes up and says, I’m going to move into a nursing home today,” said Michael Buckman, chairman of Nazareth Home. “That is never going to happen.”

At Nazareth Home in Louisville, innovating senior care, and sharing their success is the mission.Michael Buckman, Director of Development at Nazareth Home (Source: Doug Druschke, WAVE 3 News)

“We want to make sure it’s an empowering environment,” Buckman said. “We want to make sure that all of their wishes are honored, and really we want to free them to be who they are.”

At Nazareth Home in Louisville, innovating senior care, and sharing their success is the mission.

It’s programs such as True Doors, that are the result of adapting to a specific problem such as dementia care. True Doors allows to residents to pick out a door for their room.

“We’ve had families come in who say, oh my gosh, mom got her door, and first thing she wanted to do was show me when we got here,” said Buckman. “It is about lessening the anxiety, lessening the isolation, and just really telling the story about that elder.”

Some of the doors of the Nazareth Home residents are duplicates of the homes where they once lived.

The decals could be a door from a list, or it could be of the door from the house they just came from.

“They know exactly when they moved in there, how long they lived there,” Buckman added.”They have an incredible sense of pride in this community.”

True Doors is based in Europe, but it’s partnerships across the United States as well that make senior care innovation possible in Louisville.

“Getting to come out and spend time in a community like this, it just reminds me how important the work we do is,” said Kristi Stoglin, Vice President of Client Success for It’s Never 2 Late.

It’s Never 2 Late is based in Colorado, and offers palliative care patients a digital portal to another world, or a previous memory of their own.

“People like Nazareth Home, who just want to do the absolute best that they can for their elders, and offer that kind of engagement every day, that’s where It’s Never 2 Late came from and what we’re still about today,” said Stoglin.