Welcome to our Website
Our Arts & Health Care Ecosystem™ is a whole-person model that weaves the arts into everyday care to strengthen intrinsic capacity, ease symptoms, and bring joy—working alongside medicine in aging care.
Arts & Health Care Ecosystem™ for Aging Care
Support for 5 Health Domains
Support for 5 Health Domains
Support for 5 Health Domains
Think of it as preventive whole person maintenance: routine arts “tune ups” that reduce wear & tear, support body & brain performance, and extend healthspan.
Our model of preventive care integrates five key health domains and provides arts infused evidence-informed activities, experiences and evidence-based arts & health programming opportunities.
This is a whole system of preventive care, built for sustainability, impact and scalability on our proprietary ESTEAM Framework™. We don't replace traditional medical care. We aim to provide the very best kind of support to it... engagement in preventive health strategies.
Where the science speaks definitively, our programs are developed. Where the science is emerging, we innovate and research.
Cognitive Health
Support for 5 Health Domains
Support for 5 Health Domains
Cognitive - Cognitive health is the brain’s air-traffic control—attention, memory, and executive skills that keep life organized, safe, and adaptable.
- Attention: sustained, selective, divided
- Memory: working, episodic, prospective
semantic
- Executive functions: planning, inhibition,
cognitive flexibility, judgment
- Processing speed
- Language: comprehension,naming,
fluency
- Visuospatial skills: perception, navigation
- Metacognition: self-awareness of thinking
Social Health
Support for 5 Health Domains
Emotional Health
Social - social health is the engine of connection and participation—when it runs smoothly, everything else in care runs better.
- Social networks: size, diversity, closeness
of ties (family, friends, peers, staff).
- Social support: perceived & received
emotional, informational, practical help.
- Social participation: frequency/quality of
involvement in groups, activities, and
community roles.
- Belonging & inclusion: sense of
acceptance, identity, and
cultural/linguistic fit.
- Relationship quality & reciprocity:
mutuality, trust, positive affect,
low conflict.
- Loneliness & isolation: subjective
loneliness; objective isolation.
- Communication access: ability to engage
(hearing/vision, language)
Emotional Health
Emotional Health
Emotional Health
Emotional - emotional health is the system’s shock absorber—when it works, people handle life’s bumps with more grace, energy, and engagement.
- Mood state & stability: presence or
absence of depression, anxiety, apathy;
variability of mood.
- Emotion regulation & coping: distress
tolerance, reappraisal, calming skills.
- Stress reactivity & resilience:
speed/intensity of stress response;
bounce-back capacity.
- Affect & motivation: range/intensity of
positive/negative affect; drive/initiative.
- Emotion awareness & expression:
recognizing, naming, and
communicating feelings.
- Self-efficacy, hope, and meaning: sense of
agency, optimism, and purpose.
Physical Health
Emotional Health
Spiritual Health
Physical - physical health is the body’s “engine + chassis.” Keep it tuned, fueled, and moving—and everything else in life gets easier.
- Mobility & gait: walking speed, stride
quality, transfers
- Strength & power: grip,lower-body power
(chair rise)
- Endurance & aerobic capacity: ability to
sustain activity without undue fatigue
- Balance & coordination: postural control,
fall resistance, dual-task stability
- Flexibility & range of motion
- Sensorimotor function: proprioception,
reaction time, fine motor control
- Physiological health: cardiovascular,
metabolic, respiratory status; pain;
sleep; nutrition/hydration
- Functional ability: ADLs/IADLs
performance and energy for
meaningful activities
Spiritual Health
Emotional Health
Spiritual Health
Spiritual - spiritual health is the “why” behind the “how.” When people feel connected to meaning and purpose, everything from rehab to relationships works better.
- Meaning & purpose: coherence,
direction, reasons for getting up in
the morning
- Connectedness & belonging: to people,
place, community, creation,
the transcendent
- Values & integrity: living in line with
personal ethics and cultural identity
- Hope, peace, and gratitude: positive
orientation, acceptance, forgiveness
- Transcendence & awe: experiences that
uplift or broaden perspective (nature,
art, ritual)
- Legacy & contribution: generativity,
service, storytelling, life review
Why do older adults need an Arts & Health Care Ecosystem?
1. Coordinated Framework = Big Impact
Later life involves a complex interplay of physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions. This model brings those dimensions together into one coordinated framework—ensuring older adults receive support that aligns with their full humanity, and that it changes with them, as their needs change. That's because Quality Assurance and research are built into the ESTEAM Health Framework.
2. Engagement Supports Brain Health
According to a 2022 report, the average number of distinct engagement contacts per resident per day was 0.64, McKnight's Long-Term Care News. Emerging neuroscience affirms what many caregivers and clinicians have long known: meaningful engagement through the arts, music, movement, and storytelling can help stimulate memory, reduce anxiety, and strengthen neural connections. This model puts those tools into everyday use. More engagement stimulates cognitive, social and emotional health. Better emotional health, may reduce the need for some medications.
3. Belonging and Purpose Are Vital to Well-Being
Community connection, emotional expression, and a sense of purpose are key contributors to healthspan—the period of life spent in good health. Older adults are an important resource in society, a tremendous source of talent, wisdom and experience. Our ecosystem provides cultural connections and experiences that are both joyful and therapeutically grounded.
4. Targets Reductions in Excess Medication
We are not a replacement for traditional medical care. We are a complementary, integrated system of arts-based preventive care. With the population of older adults growing rapidly, and with many living longer lives, there is an opportunity to invest in scalable, preventive, and non-pharmacological supports that enhance healthspan. Our arts and health care ecosystem provides a forward-looking way to meet those evolving needs and may reduce the need for some medications, reducing costs as well as unpleasant or unproductive side effects.
5. Thrive in Later Life
Ultimately, this model is about dignity, vitality, and the belief that aging is a continued unfolding, not a decline. The ecosystem meets people where they are, offering comfort, connection, supportive aesthetic experiences and creativity at every stage of the journey. It's supported by research and best practices and planned for maximized benefit...a coordinated framework with all required training support built in.
Affiliated Organizations
Our Training & Program Support Services
Needs Analysis
Evidence-based Preferred Programming
Caregiver Development
At ESTEAM Health, our service model begins with a needs analysis, to ensure that our programs directly addresses the real, unmet needs of residents, caregivers, and other staff—thereby increasing its effectiveness, adoption, and long-term sustainability.
Caregiver Development
Evidence-based Preferred Programming
Caregiver Development
According to research from gerontology, neuroscience, caregiver training models, and best practices in long-term and home care, foundational caregiving skills fall into several interwoven domains:
- Cognitive & Executive Function Skills
- Communication & Interpersonal Skills
- Emotional Intelligence & Resilience
- Creative and Adaptive Thinking
- Commit
According to research from gerontology, neuroscience, caregiver training models, and best practices in long-term and home care, foundational caregiving skills fall into several interwoven domains:
- Cognitive & Executive Function Skills
- Communication & Interpersonal Skills
- Emotional Intelligence & Resilience
- Creative and Adaptive Thinking
- Commitment to Ongoing Learning
- Physical & Practical Caregiving Skills
- Ethics, Dignity, & Person-Centered Care
- Caregiver Self-Care
The ART of High-Performance Caregiving training builds these skills.
Evidence-based Preferred Programming
Evidence-based Preferred Programming
Evidence-based Preferred Programming
The benefit of evidence-based arts & health programming for older adults in aging care is clear and compelling:
It ensures that the care and activities provided are grounded in proven strategies that:
- improve health
- enhance quality of life
- optimize resources
leading to better outcomes for residents, caregivers, and the organization as a whole
The benefit of evidence-based arts & health programming for older adults in aging care is clear and compelling:
It ensures that the care and activities provided are grounded in proven strategies that:
- improve health
- enhance quality of life
- optimize resources
leading to better outcomes for residents, caregivers, and the organization as a whole.
ESTEAM Health creates our own original programming. But we also partner with organizations with a long history and reputation for excellence. So your residents will always have access to the most beneficial, cutting edge programming available.
Data, Insights, Improvements
Evidence-based Preferred Programming
Evidence-based Preferred Programming
Investing in research and innovation for arts-based interventions in aging care isn't a luxury—it's a smart economic strategy. It reduces public and private healthcare costs, stabilizes a fragile care workforce, extends healthspan, and honors the dignity of aging through creative expression.
Or, to say it another way:
When we fund the art
Investing in research and innovation for arts-based interventions in aging care isn't a luxury—it's a smart economic strategy. It reduces public and private healthcare costs, stabilizes a fragile care workforce, extends healthspan, and honors the dignity of aging through creative expression.
Or, to say it another way:
When we fund the arts in eldercare, we aren't just enriching lives—we're rewiring the economics of aging.
Economic Insight: Preventive arts-based programs improve physical, cognitive, and emotional health—reducing reliance on costly clinical interventions.
Evidence: A National Endowment for the Arts report found that older adults who participate in arts programs had fewer doctor visits, reduced medication use, and fewer falls.
ROI Estimate: Some creative aging programs have shown returns of $3–$6 for every $1 invested in terms of cost savings to Medicare and Medicaid.
We believe...
It's time for a paradigm shift in aging care.
So we are innovating at the intersection of science, medicine, technology and the arts. we are not trying to replace traditional care, but to support it in the best way possible... interdisciplinary, evidence-based preventive care through the arts. This way we can address cognitive, social, emotional, physical and spiritual health in fun and inspiring ways. We have developed an Arts & Health Care Ecosystem. It's not just a program, it's a way of life.
The best care requires well-trained and inspired caregivers. That's why we have invested in creating training that develops high level critical thinking skills. With the complex care situations that can arise in aging care, including life and death decisions, we feel the caregivers deserve training that is well-suited to develop skills that meet the level of care requirements. Not just a feel good experience, but a transformational one. You know who else deserves that? Older adults who need care!
Quality Assurance Built-In
We know that arts experiences change the body, brain and behavior, and we are translating this knowledge into specific structured practices with quality assurance and control measures built in. Technology makes it possible to support continuous improvement of programs and procedures. So you've always got the most cutting edge programming available.
Benefits
The purpose of our programming is to improve intrinsic capacity, meaning lower resident dependency rates in aging care. These benefits are expected to create a ripple effect of efficiency improvements that will transform aging care in ways that are pleasing to insurers, healthcare providers, aging care organizations, employees, and most importantly...older adults.
Keys to Success
Our Team
Save Money - Reduce Resident & Employee Turnover
The Keys Are...
Our interdisciplinary advisor team of distinguished creative arts therapists, neuroscientists, physicians, mental health professionals, occupational therapy, physical therapy, arts educators, fitness experts, business experts and researchers support the development of our arts and health care ecosystem for retirement communities.
The Keys Are...
Save Money - Reduce Resident & Employee Turnover
The Keys Are...
Accessibility, accountability and sustainability are the keys. Without that... it's not worth your time to invest in wellness programs. We help you every step along the way. And the best part.... residents and caregivers are gonna love the way they feel!
Save Money - Reduce Resident & Employee Turnover
Save Money - Reduce Resident & Employee Turnover
Save Money - Reduce Resident & Employee Turnover
Would you like to reduce resident and employee turnover rates? Reduce resident dependency? Improve caregiver empathy and collaboration skills? Enhance critical thinking skills in developing leaders, cultivate new mental models for innovation? Our programs can improve your retirement community's bottomline in numerous ways.