John Goodman wears his heart on his sleeve. On a visceral level, his job — that is, his responsibility — is to make memories, to maximize the potential of the human spirit.
Spend time with Goodman and his “caring” mantra quickly emerges: “People have the right to have dignity at all ages — despite their physical and mental challenges. Everyone deserves dignity.”
He is the chairman of The Goodman Group, and has over 45 years of experience managing and operating residential, commercial, senior living communities and health care centers.
Innovation in care
His latest project — correction, passion — is the grand opening of Villa at Terracina Grand, a first-of-its-kind experiential memory care community in Naples, Florid
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A 60-bed, 61,000-square-foot premier memory care community, Villa at Terracina Grand was designed to be an international center for innovation in memory care — one dedicated to developing and offering evidence-based advancements in experiential integrative health care approaches.
The “family business,” founded by his father Sidney 50 years ago this month, not only developed Goodman’s character, but enveloped his soul along the way.
As Goodman explains: “We wanted to create a state-of-the-art center bringing together the best of all our learning.”
You can’t be in business and ignore the power of facts and figures — numeric indicators dominate many boardroom discussions. Nevertheless, the emotional impact of statistics can also demand a shift in corporate direction — even when driven by equal parts profit, loss, gut, emotion and responsibility.
Today, 5.3 million people have some sort of dementia and 1 in 3 seniors dies from some form of Alzheimer’s or dementia. Alzheimer’s and dementia cost our nation $226 billion per year.
Using multiple senses
Villa at Terracina Grand incorporates all components of The Goodman Group’s Soulful Environments™ initiative including multisensory enhanced surroundings. Part of Goodman’s spirituality-infused business model is “to work with nature, music, sights and sound to give people the very best possible experience.”
A specific point of pride is Goodman’s decision to work with renowned psychologist Dr. Cameron Camp to integrate Montessori Inspired Lifestyle™ (MIL) to memory care — a resident-driven approach based on the philosophy of educator Maria Montessori.
With a focus on offering choice and meaningful social roles, MIL has been proven to successfully engage persons across all levels of dementia.
Some may view Goodman’s life’s work as the equivalent of dancing with death; however, the reverse is true. Goodman celebrates life.
“I want to elevate the way we look at aging and dying. The outcome will be the same for all of us, but if we can transform the way we think about dying, we can really live.”
For those of us who passionately believe in the value of our aging population, Goodman’s career path — one focused on elevating the art of “assisted” living — raises another question: Who is really being “assisted” here? The residents or those of us lucky enough to bask in their glory?
For more information, visit thegoodmangroup.com or villaatterracinagrand.com. John Goodman’s new book, “The Road to Self: Reflections and Insights from a Soulful CEO,” is scheduled for release this fall.
