Pursuing a Desired Future: Continuity and Change in a Long-Term-Care Community

New ways of planning, assessing, and measuring cultural change are needed in long-term care. Much effort is focused on person-centered care; less attention is paid to achieving localized change. Long-term-care communities need innovative approaches for identifying local cultural features to preserve and others to reconfigure. This case study involves applied anthropologists working with four stakeholder groups—residents, staff, family members, and volunteers—to document views of their “culture story” and conceptualize a cultural ideal for their community. Based on strengths and weaknesses from their culture story, specific recommendations were made to maintain their strong relationship focus, expand community outreach, and improve staff relations. Incorporating “insider” views of the past, present, and imagined future and building on current “best practices” of the culture-change movement are two distinctive but complementary approaches for motivating and managing cultural change.