Team members at the Institute for Caregiver Education responded to a need for Culture Change education in Florida by applying for and receiving funding from the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration. Specifically, the monies come from the state's Quality of Long-Term Care Facility Improvement Trust Fund. The fund was created in 2001 to support programs related to the improvement of care for long term and assisted living residents. The trust fund monies are a combination of general Florida state revenues and 50 percent of any punitive damages awarded as part of a lawsuit against nursing homes or related health care facilities in the state.

Teresa McCann, the Institute's Regional Director of Education & Change Management in Florida alerted the team to the availability of funding for innovative eldercare programming and activities in January 2007. The Institute for Caregiver Education team has been working with a number of eldercare providers in the state to help them to incorporate Culture Change into their daily practices. Ms. McCann saw the availability of funding as a way to provide regional free trainings to providers across Florida.

The Institute has offered Culture Change training for long term care professionals in Pennsylvania, Texas, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, California, Maine, New York, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. This is the first time that the team has been given an opportunity to provide Culture Change training of this size and scope. In addition, it is also the first time that the trainings have been offered to attendees free of charge.

The goal of the program submitted to Florida AHCA was to provide five one-day Culture Change Symposiums that would be recognized by leading national accrediting bodies for long term care professionals. The educational content for each day was designed to offer attendees an introductory look at the basic principles behind the Culture Change movement. In addition, the program covers implementation strategies and advanced topics including transformation of dining and activities to a person-directed care approach.

A strategic component of the funding application was the ability to offer each nursing home provider organization that attends a set of person-directed care resources to take back to their organization and put into practice. The Institute specializes in the creation of resources designed to assist eldercare providers in transforming their model of care from solely clinical to a social model, (a.k.a. the Culture Change model of care) now nationally-recognized as a preferred method of service. In fact, the transition of eldercare services to a Culture Change model is supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the American Health Care Association and, as evidenced by the funding to the institute project, the Agency for Health Care Administration.

Additional funding for the Institute's Florida Culture Change Symposiums has been provided by the Mature Care Insurance Company, the Westminster Care Community and the Frontline Foundation.

The Institute for Caregiver Education's Person-Directed Care Symposiums will offer training on a variety of care practices that are designed and proven to elevate the quality of life and the quality of care for residents in nursing home settings. Nursing home professionals attending these symposiums will return to their organizations with the foundation knowledge and the strategic resources necessary to move toward a Person-Directed Care philosophy, one which is supported by CMS and the 8th Scope of Work.

The Culture Change Symposiums will be held in June. The dates and cities include:

•    Tuesday, June 12th - Miami
•    Wednesday, June 13th - Orlando
•    Thursday, June 14th - Tampa / St. Petersburg
•    Tuesday, June 19th - Ft. Myers
•    Thursday, June 21st - Tallahassee

"Never before has the Institute been able to provide Culture Change education to such a large number of individuals without charging a registration fee," says Teresa McCann, RN, Senior Consultant and Director of Development for the Institute. "The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration will single-handedly be able to offer more than 500 individuals this crucial professional development and CEUs."