WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT


The Pandemic Brought Home to All The Need for Continued Support


By Leigh Ann Barney


that our industry, our employees, and our residents will be recovering from the pan- demic’s effects for the foreseeable future. Just as we rallied to support those we serve


W


in the early days of the pandemic, we need to find ways to continue this support—not only because it’s in our best interest as an industry, but because it’s the right thing to do. In the beginning stages of the pandemic,


we saw people cheering for our front-line workers in the streets and honking at our residents during car parades. And while these were wonderful gestures of love and gratitude, I think that every leader in se- nior living knew that they were not nearly enough. Our employees and residents need- ed more from us, and they needed it now.


hile the COVID-19 vaccines have given us all a much-need- ed shot of hope, the reality is


April and May, when stay-at-home orders were turning the lives of many families upside-down, we also invested $100,000 in food and childcare assistance for our employees. In much the same way, we built on our


existing employee assistance program, Be- Well, to provide even more resources for our employees to find emotional and spiritual support. Most notably, we entered into a partnership with Marketplace Chaplains, which allows employees to connect with spiritual leaders and receive counseling, guidance, and comfort. To date, more than 4,000 of our employees have participated in this program. The pandemic compounded existing


hardships for all. One highly concerning aspect was the increased difficulty of get- ting away from domestic violence situations.


As the pandemic has worn on, we have continued to look for ways to double-down on our emotional, spiritual, financial, and physical support programs.


Understanding family needs For Trilogy, this is where a strong founda- tion of employee and resident well-being programming became invaluable. Instead of building these programs from the ground up, we could tweak our existing support sys- tems to address the pandemic’s new set of challenges. For example, through our non-profit,


the Trilogy Foundation, we have always offered our employees financial assistance for crises such as emergency surgery or a natural disaster, but during five weeks in


Emergency funding made the difference: In 2020, we helped 61 employees escape domestic violence situations by offering emergency financial assistance. Other families found debt climbing as jobs


were lost. To help, we used a partnership with Dave Ramsey’s Smart Dollar program, result- ing in employees eliminating $427,257 in debt and adding $242,120 in savings over 2020.


Helping the whole person As the pandemic has worn on, we have continued to look for ways to double-down


on our emotional, spiritual, financial, and physical support programs. Our residents were


at risk for suffering from the


effects


of social isolation, stress, fear, and loss. Our Life Enrichment and Dining Ser- vices teams, which were accustomed to offering both meals and activities in engaging group settings, immediately responded by adapting their services, and in many cases, creating new programming. We now have an entire cat- alog of activities that can be facilitated in small, socially-distanced groups or during one-on-one interactions. In instances where quarantine measures


Leigh Ann Barney President & CEO Trilogy Health Services, LLC


have confined residents to their rooms, our teams are delivering what we call “Smile Packets.” These contain a variety of ac- tivities designed to bring joy to those in quarantine. Currently, we offer two types of Smile Packets – one each for higher and lower functioning residents. And while the gesture of delivering these packets may seem simple, we’ve seen them bring happy tears to the eyes of some of our residents. We also altered our theme weeks, which


we host once a quarter, where residents gather for a multiple course meal based on a theme. In October, this was “The Orient Express.” Where COVID-19 restrictions applied, we delivered these meals directly to our residents. These included steak filet oscar, and even charcuterie boards.


Smiles and spirituality Technology has allowed us to bridge the


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