Rebecca Martin, MorningStar Senior Living’s VP of Memory Care, joins Suzanne to talk about their Lavender Sky program. Lavender Sky is the communities’ Alzheimer's and dementia memory care philosophy and programming services, which takes a holistic approach. 

Why is it called Lavender Sky? Rebecca explains, “That really comes from our tagline at MorningStar, which is to cast a new light, and that is our goal, just knowing that so many people come to us having those feelings of despair or anxiety, and wanting to find the best place for their senior loved one. And also, the color dark purple is often associated with Alzheimer's, so we decided, when we cast light on the darkness of all of those emotions, that we can really bring peace to those families, that we can lift them up to a lighter, more hopeful space. And just doing so lightens that color to lavender. So we chose to call it Lavender Sky. And for the soothing properties of lavender, the plant, which is known to help therapeutically soothe anxiety.” 

Rebecca continues, “The program is really more than just a training program. This is our philosophy on memory care with staff training, family support services, and our signature standards that you can see in all 32 of our homes. What we did there is branch off of our mission statement and our commitment to really value all seniors as gifted in contributing individuals. We thought, how do we continue to do that despite the challenges that come with dementia? How do we continue to draw out those gifts and support our seniors to really feel genuinely valued? 

“We've had the Lavender Sky training program since about 2013. It has evolved over the years, and the program has been developing over this past year to include additional layers: the family support, and even community training for first responders, or anybody that really just wants to have a greater understanding of dementia and Alzheimer's. 

“We require all of our staff to go through the Lavender Sky training. So, whether they work in culinary, housekeeping, or the front desk, we want them to have that deeper understanding of what dementia is, because 70% of our residents, even in assisted living, can have some cognitive challenges. So we want them to be able to identify when someone might benefit from additional support, or how to redirect somebody that may have some cognitive challenges. And we just want everyone to feel fully comfortable, equipped, and confident that they know how to engage with a resident, how to redirect them if necessary. And to really understand, with great empathy, what's physically going on with their cognitive decline.” 

See a video introduction of Lavender Sky with Rebecca Martin, and learn more atMorningStar Senior Living’s website.

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