Will Work For Wellness in Oakland: Mercy Retirement & Care Center Implements LIFT-Levantate Wellness Program

A community approach to workplace health is creating a culture of wellness for care staff at Mercy Retirement and Care Center, a local elder care community. Elder Care Alliance, a nonprofit group of assisted living and memory care communities in the San Francisco Bay Area (including Oakland, San Francisco, and San Rafael, and in the Southern California community of Camarillo), announced it will implement an employee wellness program at all its locations through a partnership with LIFT-Levántate.

LIFT-Levántate, a San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofit builds healthy equitable communities, focusing on low-income families that face steeper cultural, environmental, economic and health challenges.    The program developed for Elder Care Alliance is a holistic wellness program centered on nutrition, physical activity, life skills development, and chronic disease reduction with a goal of creating a culture of wellness that supports a healthy lifestyle and healthy choices. 

“Serving and enriching the wellness needs of our residents is the heart of what we do. The work is gratifying, but can be labor intensive and stressful. Poor health habits of our employees can impact work performance, job satisfaction, turnover, and raise our expenditures for employee health care,” said Rachel Main, Director of Life Enrichment and Memory Care, Elder Care Alliance. “As a resident once said, ‘how can you expect to care for us, if you don’t first take care of yourselves?’.” 

A 60-day pilot project deployed at the AlmaVia community in San Rafael from September to October of last year proved to be incredibly successful, both life-changing and culture-changing.  Because of that success, Elder Care Alliance made the decision to invest in the implementation of this culture of wellness across all communities over an 18-month period beginning in January.

“Elder Care Alliance is a learning-centered organization, meaning we are constantly asking ourselves how we might do things better and are open to trying new ways to achieve greater impact,” said Adriene Iverson, Director of Strategy and Business Development, Elder Care Alliance. “We also value collaboration in order to more fully care for the older adults we serve. Partnering with LIFT-Levántate is a way for us to further invest in residents’ wellness by investing in employee wellness.”

Caregivers, housekeepers, culinary staff, and other Elder Care Alliance employees are able to participate in nutrition (healthy cooking, food demos), physical activity (Zumba, yoga, walking and gardening clubs), and life skills (art therapy, stress reduction) classes. Health coaches are available to talk privately about individual challenges. The community members also benefit from LIFT-Levántate’s partnerships with other local organizations, such as receiving fresh fruits and vegetables.

Elder Care Alliance embarked on the LIFT-Levántate pilot after trying several other corporate programs that ultimately were not accessible to employees. LIFT-Levántate offers multi-cultural, multi-lingual classes and programs, and operates on a more grass-root level. The program also adapts to the schedules of employees, by offering drop-in classes (often the same one multiple times a day) and meeting them onsite.

The resulting effect on the lives of employees is evident in the abundance of personal stories that have been shared, such as one young mother learning to better care for herself post-baby, those choosing to take the stairs more often or walking to work instead of driving, and the by-product of weight loss experienced by many due to the health and lifestyle changes they have made. One man was motivated to make a long postponed doctor visit, and many recount feeling less stress now that they have new coping skills.

“We know that when these activities are done together there is more success with people wanting to maintain those habits – we get unhealthy together, and we can get healthy together,” said Richard Waxman, Founder and Executive Director, LIFT-Levántate. “We listen and get great insight from them on what they need and want. This is not a cookie-cutter approach. Each community has its own identity. By taking a community approach, what Elder Care Alliance is doing is creating a culture of wellness.”

About LIFT-Levántate LIFT-Levántate is a California nonprofit organization dedicated to creating healthy, equitable communities for those facing significant health challenges and with limited access to affordable resources. Our mission is to empower community members to embrace and sustain healthy activities. We accomplish this through our five key strategies: Health Education, Health Access, Training and Technical Assistance, Policy and Systems, and Evaluation and Research. LIFT-Levántate is dedicated to successfully implementing these strategies and actively strengthening local and statewide partnerships to support our mission. For more information visit www.Lift-Levántate.org. 

About Elder Care Alliance

Elder Care Alliance is a nonprofit integrated system committed to serving and enriching the holistic wellness of older adults and those who care for them through education, innovation and a network of professionals, care communities and partners. All Elder Care Alliance communities foster environments of tolerance that welcome residents of all faiths. Elder Care Alliance is co-sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas West Midwest Community& the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. For more information, visit www.ElderCareAlliance.org.