Hearthstone Alzheimer Care provides full service management, consulting and training services to providers of Assisted Living, Nursing Home, Day Care and related healthcare services. Our core group of consultants represent decades of expertise in diverse disciplines with a dedicated focus on improving the lives of those living with Alzheimer’s and related dementias.

Hearthstone Alzheimer Care is unique for a number of reasons. Founded in 1992 to provide innovative treatment for people with dementia in assisted living settings, Hearthstone has been a recognized leader in its field for over a decade. Our dedication to our founding mission has shaped a company that continuously changes to meet the changing needs of residents and their families and to incorporate the latest in dementia treatment research.

Among Hearthstone's unique features is our commitment to research-based practice. Hearthstone's research division has been funded by the National Institute on Aging and private foundations to complete research on a range of topics relevant to dementia care, assisted living, and senior housing.

Hearthstone is a privately held company whose owner is active in the business every day. The Management Team is dedicated to Hearthstone's mission of creating residential treatment environments where residents and their families can truly flourish. Central to the mission is the belief that all families, staff, regulators, and building owners have much to contribute to the optimization of the treatment environment. We therefore emphasize teamwork as a method for decision-making throughout the company.

A unique aspect of Hearthstone is The Hearthstone Way , a set of principles that underlie everything we do. Based on our own and others' research, and on our collective decades of experience in the field of dementia treatment, these principles serve as the basis for our consulting and training services, and ensure that Hearthstone Residences are places where people with Alzheimer's and related disorders can flourish.

The assisted living treatment residences that Hearthstone manages are both high quality environments for care and treatment, and learning centers to develop, demonstrate and train others in innovative treatment approaches. Hearthstone directs its energies to identify and support the positive effects of non-pharmacologic treatment: environment design, special learning programs, communication, staff training, and art. In a coordinated and balanced way these are linked with appropriate levels of medication treatment.

Management & Consulting Services

Business Development

Hearthstone assists organizations in developing high quality programs for people with Alzheimer ‘s disease and related dementias. More than a decade of experience specializing exclusively in dementia care, combined with our research background, provides us with the knowledge and expertise to assist others that want to provide the best in Alzheimer Care. The Hearthstone team is available to:

Operational Services

Hearthstone develops operations and staffing plans that efficiently create a high quality care environment. These plans are tailored to the design of new and existing buildings, the organization’s mission, and its financial needs.

Hearthstone’s time-tested efficient and effective model enables us to analyze the operations of other Alzheimer care providers—existing or in development—and recommend improvements that accrue directly to the bottom line. We train staff to provide high quality Alzheimer care with a focus on the most recent research in activity programming, physical environment, staff training and most importantly, health services. Our approach takes advantage of all aspects of care in a coordinated approach that improves functioning and quality of life for those living with dementia.

We are available to recruit, train and/or manage administrative and clinical staff.

We also perform regulatory reviews. Hearthstone’s long-standing tradition of working with regulatory agencies to help create, monitor and influence regulatory matters combined with our expert legal counsel, provides us with the ability to review and recommend a plan that will assist organizations in navigating the field of dementia care.

Marketing and Sales Consultation

Hearthstone’s approach to marketing rests on education and community outreach to build relationships with professionals and caregivers. People are naturally curious about Hearthstone’s unique, award winning approach to care and want to learn more about our programs. This interest translates into well attended events that generate referrals. In addition to providing these presentations, we train marketing staff to effectively use these techniques to increase professional referrals and general interest inquiries.

Working with advanced industry partners, Hearthstone also performs competitive and demographic analysis, and full market studies. We can also assist in branding through name recognition, perform work on collateral development, create or develop advertising, and assist in building media contacts for greater visibility.

Evidence-based Design Consultation

Dr. Zeisel’s background and extensive work in the fields of architecture and design provide us with the ability to offer consultation in design project management, including issues of site location, architectural design, and the development process. During the design process we focus on design programming, design review, and post-occupancy evaluation (POE). Hearthstone has developed a national and international network of designers, architects, developers, and financiers who can provide turnkey solutions for any organization.

Financial Review and Planning

Hearthstone provides financial consultation and review to organizations looking to develop or improve the financial performance of their Alzheimer treatment programs. Our services include:

Quality Control

High standards in quality control of Alzheimer care programs ensure customer satisfaction, increased staff retention, and compliance with state regulations.

Services available to improve quality control include:

We analyze and recommend design, operational, financial and marketing measures to more closely meet an organization’s mission in the ever-evolving world of Alzheimer care.

Training Services

Resident Assistant

Hearthstone has developed an extensive and copyrighted training manual, called the “ Hearthstone Way,” which is essential to providing our exceptional Alzheimer personal care. This manual, combined with our years of operating experience, have helped us create a world-class Alzheimer’s training curriculum. We train initial staff in start-up, we help improve the performance of existing staff, and we monitor and provide quality assurance on staff.

Hearthstone’s course is tailored specifically to meet the needs of Alzheimer residents. This specialized training allows us to consistently recruit, train and develop staff members who become loving, personal care aides. These aides are an integral part of both personal care teams and activity programming. We are available to train new staff in our unique, resident centered approach to personal Alzheimer’s care.  

 
Activity Programming

One of the keys to quality Alzheimer’s care is an engaging activity program tailored to the illness and to residents’ cognitive abilities and strengths. Hearthstone professionals are available to review, develop, and monitor activity programming for any Alzheimer’s program.
We also practice and promote an exciting new activity programming approach that combines Montessori techniques for people living with Alzheimer’s and “Spaced-Retrieval Learning.” Dr. Cameron Camp, the champion of these programs describes them as follows:

“By keeping residents actively engaged and by facilitating information retrieval – using everyday materials and activities that are meaningful and familiar – residents are empowered to reclaim their dignity and self-respect, two conditions that affect quality of life.” (Source: ttp://www.ccma.ca/ccma/documents/Spaced-RetreivalandMontessoriforDementia.doc )

Integrating these approaches into treatment programs significantly improves the quality of life of residents, and can help successfully manage many of the symptoms commonly associated with this disease.



Marketing and Sales Training

Hearthstone’s approach to sales and marketing is focused on education and community outreach. Through education, we not only promote our business, but also have the opportunity to provide the public with quality information and guidance on Alzheimer care.

Hearthstone has been very successful in attracting media attention to the work we do. Our credits include: ABC’s World News Tonight, CNN, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Boston Globe, International Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, the “One-on-One” television program, The Retirement Living Network, The Gerontologist, BBC Radio in London, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in Sydney, and Harvard Magazine.

Our team is available to assist companies with the development of their Marketing and PR programs. We also train others on our educational approach.

Artists for Alzheimer’s

Hearthstone’s Family Foundation has created an exciting program that uses The Arts and community based cultural organizations as therapy for those living with Alzheimer’s. Partnering with individual artists as well as world-class cultural organizations, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Tribeca Film Institute, the Big Apple Circus, and the National Gallery of Australia, we are able to bring the worlds of art, music and culture to those typically excluded from such endeavors. We are available to train and share with others our approach to these exciting programs.

Lecture Series

Hearthstone's Founder and President, John Zeisel, PhD, lectures internationally
on a variety of topics including:

Hearthstone's Research-Based Coordinated Treatment Philosophy ;
Artists for Alzheimer Program / Art Experience ;
Montessori-based Activities and Spaced Retrieval Techniques ;
Managing Challenging Behaviors   ;
Non-Pharmacologic Best Practices for Alzheimer’s

Dr. Zeisel’s latest book, I’m Still Here – The Gifts of Alzheimer’s, will be published in 2007.
This book crystallizes Dr. Zeisel’s thoughts on quality Alzheimer Care from his extensive career in the field.

Dr. Zeisel is available to speak and share his insights, expertise and experience in the field of elder care.