How One New Hire Exemplifies Epoch Senior Living’s Strategy To Improve Memory Care

Memory care operators have in recent years leaned on strong, empathetic sales leaders to connect with families unsure of what to expect in dementia care.

One such company is Epoch Senior Living. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company has in 2024 looked to improve its memory care services, including by launching a training program to bolster its efforts for residents with higher needs.

Helping to facilitate that program isRhonda Stasulli, who Epoch recently hired as a senior advisor at the Bridges by Epoch at Trumbull in Trumbull, Connecticut. Though Stasulli is just one of many senior advisors at Epoch, the position is an important one for facilitating the kind of care and services that memory care residents need. And her hiring represents how Epoch is trying to accelerate its efforts to grow and evolve for memory care residents of tomorrow.

Stasulli and the company’s other senior advisors play an important role in helping to lead sales teams and translating the ins and outs of memory care for families.

Stasulli is a certified dementia trainer who has in the past worked with United Methodist Homes and Benchmark Senior Living.

“I think it’s helped me and it gives me more credibility and I feel comfortable speaking with families,” Stasulli told Memory Care Business.

Connecting with prospects and families in memory care is a delicate balance of understanding urgency and constant communication with families to ensure all sides find the right placement for their loved one, Stasulli said. At the community in Trumbull, Stasulli has spearheaded sales efforts using the company’s client resource management (CRM) system to identify leads and convert them into move-ins. .

Succeeding in driving occupancy at a memory care community requires quick response times to families and willingness to meet families in the community to show them exactly what a memory care program can offer, she said. Epoch in its sales process also highlights its technological capabilities, specifically in resident safety systems such as an in-room sensor that can detect falls and changes in resident acuity.

Important elements of the memory care sales process include coaching and mentoring families to “show them there is light at the end of the tunnel” and demonstrate the programming and benefits of congregate memory care for older adults living with dementia.

“The sales process in memory care is definitely different because there’s families in distress and there’s a sense of urgency but you don’t want to miss any of the steps,” Statsulli said. “It requires a lot more delving into actually what’s going on because a lot of times the adult children don’t know what’s going on with their loved one.”

But beyond those seeking a quick move-in for a loved one, there are other leads that require a longer sales process and require attentiveness and the ability to nurture a prospect into a move-in conversion, Statsulli added.

One of the biggest challenges in memory care Statsulli said is grappling with a family’s denial that their relative might not need memory care but it’s important to demonstrate changes in acuity and highlight how lower acuity settings could further hinder a resident’s path to achieving a stable condition and a robust lifestyle.

The other challenge in building occupancy is affordability of memory care, a key issue that operators have had to grapple with in recent years as more older adults are unable to meet the high price point for memory care. 

Zooming out the lens, Epoch has expanded its memory care services since the death of founder Larry Gerber in the spring of 2023. That includes launching a new dementia care training program for staff at its 11 Bridges memory care communities and five Waterstone Senior Living communities.

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