Why We Took Memory Care Residents on Real Outings — Every Week

Back in 2010, when I was executive director of a memory care community, I made a decision some people questioned: our residents went on the same kinds of outings as the more independent assisted living residents next door.

Not movies or the symphony — nothing that needed a long attention span. Every week, we did a scenic drive and a lunch bunch outing. Twice a month, we added a destination field trip — the Air Force Base, Festival of Trees, minor league baseball games, the tulip festival, the pumpkin patch.

We built it around safety and connection. Every resident was paired with a staff volunteer, and they wore matching colored caps with name tags — resident's name on the volunteer's tag, volunteer's name on the resident's tag. It turned into one of the best team-building tools I've ever seen, and it deepened trust with families in a real way.

People often asked, "Why bother if they won't remember the outing?" My answer was always the same: we weren't doing it for the memory. We were doing it for the moment — for the staff, for the families, for the relationships being built right then.

There was another benefit I didn't expect. When a resident was agitated, flipping through our photo album of outings together often calmed them down faster than anything else — a gentler alternative to reaching for anxiety medication.

Sadly, when I tour communities today as an advisors with https://utahseniorcareadvisors.com/ , Isee residents who rarely get off the bus on their outings. It doesn't have to be that way.