Dr. Raj Kalra, Founder, Proprietor & Doctor at Aroha Reminiscence Care by MD Senior Wellness, has been named a 2025 Reminiscence Care Innovation Award winner by Senior Housing Information.
The Reminiscence Care Innovation Awards program is designed to acknowledge passionate and revolutionary business members who’re shaping the way forward for cognitive care throughout behavioral well being, residence well being and residential care, hospice and palliative care, senior housing and senior residing, and expert nursing. To turn out to be a Reminiscence Care Innovation Award winner, a person should be nominated by their friends. The candidate needs to be a high-performing worker who is aware of the right way to put imaginative and prescient into motion, serving as an advocate for these residing with memory-related problems and the dedicated professionals who guarantee their well-being.
Kalra sat down with Senior Housing Information to share his journey caring for sufferers and residents with cognitive care wants, his ideas on the way forward for cognitive care in senior housing & senior residing, and far more. To be taught extra concerning the Reminiscence Care Innovation Awards program and consider this 12 months’s winners, go to https://innovation.memorycarebusiness.com/.
SHN: How lengthy have you ever been part of the senior housing & senior residing business?
Kalra: I’ve been a doctor since 2009, however my journey into senior residing started about 5 years in the past when my mother received sick. That have fully modified the way in which I considered growing older and the senior residing business.
As a board-certified doctor in Bodily Drugs and Rehabilitation, Ache Drugs, Life-style Drugs, and Weight problems Drugs, I’ve labored extensively with older adults going through bodily and cognitive decline. Creating Aroha felt like a pure extension of my medical observe — making use of evidence-based wellness ideas to assist seniors thrive throughout their most weak years.
SHN: What drew you to caring for sufferers/residents with cognitive care wants?
Kalra: My ardour got here from private expertise. Watching relations wrestle with dementia confirmed me how fragmented the system could be — medical care on one aspect, day by day residing on one other. I wished to bridge that hole.
Reminiscence care shouldn’t simply handle decline; it ought to assist folks reside with dignity, function, and connection. Aroha was constructed to point out that science and compassion can coexist superbly.
SHN: Should you might change one factor about cognitive care within the senior housing & senior residing business, what wouldn’t it be?
Kalra: I’d shift the main focus from managing signs to enhancing well-being. Too typically, care is reactive — centered on what’s misplaced as an alternative of what stays. By way of way of life medication, we emphasize six pillars of well being: motion, diet, stress administration, restorative sleep, social connection, and function. These evidence-based habits can reverse gentle cognitive dysfunction and gradual additional decline. Dementia isn’t the tip of residing — there’s nonetheless a lot pleasure and that means to expertise.
SHN: Should you had a crystal ball, what do you assume will most affect your potential to offer cognitive care within the senior housing & senior residing business within the subsequent 5 years?
Kalra: Expertise and knowledge will rework how we personalize care. Actual-time monitoring, AI-assisted insights, and engagement platforms will assist us observe outcomes extra successfully. However the actual worth comes from utilizing that info to strengthen human connection — not exchange it.
SHN: Should you might describe cognitive care within the senior housing & senior residing business in a single phrase, what wouldn’t it be and why?
Kalra: Human.
At its core, reminiscence care is about honoring humanity — the tales, feelings, and small day by day rituals that outline who we’re. Expertise and design matter, however compassion and presence are what flip a constructing into a house.
SHN: What’s been the most important lesson you might have realized all through your profession?
Kalra: Tradition is the muse of care. The very best environments are constructed on shared values — respect, curiosity, and kindness. When your crew feels linked to a mission, residents and households really feel it too. Folks could overlook what you say, however they always remember the way you made them really feel. At Aroha, we wish each resident and household to really feel heard, cared for, and liked.
SHN: Should you might give your self recommendation on the primary day within the senior housing & senior residing business, what wouldn’t it be and why?
Kalra: Be affected person. Innovation in senior residing takes time, persistence, and empathy. The techniques are advanced, and significant change doesn’t occur in a single day. Keep centered in your “why” — enhancing high quality of life for older adults — and each problem turns into a part of the mission.
SHN: In your opinion, what qualities ought to all Reminiscence Care Innovation Award winners possess?
Kalra: Authenticity, braveness, and collaboration. Innovation isn’t about expertise or tendencies — it’s about taking daring, compassionate motion to enhance lives. The very best leaders pay attention, problem conventions with coronary heart and humility, and by no means lose sight of the folks they serve.
