Brio’s Post-Occupancy Evaluation Study by SAGE

Friday, March 11th, 2022

Brio of Johnston, a WesleyLife Community for Healthy Living was studied by SAGE for their annual Post-Occupancy Evaluation.

SAGE (the Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments), is a non-profit organization with the mission of promoting collaboration and expanding knowledge among aging services providers, design professionals, regulators, residents, researchers, manufacturers, educators, students and others interested in providing innovative and appropriate environments for older adults.

In early March, SAGE conducted its 6th Annual Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) of the Brio community. Brio was honored with the Environments for Aging (EFA) Design Showcase top honor in 2020. The community opened in January 2019, and is designed with wellness as its foundation. It pushes innovation to create a continuum of care community designed fully around healthy living and person-centered care. Sited on 22 acres in a suburb of Des Moines, the community serves 55+ through all stages of care, including end of life and late stage Alzheimer’s.

The POE team spent a few days at Brio observing the building or community setting from a multidisciplinary point of view, looking at the setting through the lens of SAGE principles. The team conducted interviews with all levels of staff, residents, and family members to get to the heart of what is working and what needs improvement to help older adults be in the community longer and feel more comfortable.

Elements that set Brio apart such as care administration, food delivery, blending of care types regarding social interaction, and many other elements of these programs were reviewed in-depth and included feedback from residents as well.

Christine Soma and Jill Schroeder from Pope Architects, participated in the evaluation, along with leaders from WesleyLife.

The team’s findings will be shared at this years Environments for Aging annual conference in Milwaukee, WI at the “Notes from the Field: The 6th Annual SAGE Post-Occupancy Evaluation” session on April 3. The POE team is also developing a whitepaper that will be released later this year, and featured nationally at EFA and LeadingAge national conferences.

Check out the Brio of Johnston project page for more information on this community.