Review of the Seniors Flourish Learning Lab: Is it Right For You?

I’ve been a huge fan of Mandy Chamberlain’s Seniors Flourish, including her podcast and website, since I first started blogging on My OT Spot over three years ago (wow, time flies!)

I personally hadn’t gotten the chance to try out the Seniors Flourish Learning Lab membership until I signed up earlier this year, but I’m glad I did. I really wish it existed when I was a new grad OT – and the only OT at my first setting – doing geriatric outpatient Medicare Part B therapy.

Even though I’ve been practicing almost four years, I’ve been finding the Learning Lab super helpful to keep expanding my skill set. This is especially true now that I’m often flying solo in acute care and usually don’t have other OTs to bounce ideas off of.

Since I’ve had a solid amount of time to fully experience the Learning Lab, I wanted to give my honest thoughts about it for any of you curious about becoming a member.

But first, what is the Seniors Flourish Learning Lab?

The Seniors Flourish Learning Lab is an online occupational therapy practitioner membership program tailored to OTs, COTAs, and Level II fieldwork students working in the older adult settings. These settings range from acute care and inpatient rehab to skilled nursing, home health, and everything in between.

It is basically like your own virtual OT mentorship program, designed specifically for OT practitioners that need mentorship and easily accessible resources.

The Learning Lab includes four super helpful sections.

1. Education Videos

You can search the huge library of short videos by diagnosis, treatment ideas, or clinical area. I think I counted around 175 videos! This is my personal favorite feature of the Learning Lab since all of the videos are about 10 minutes long. It’s super easy to get a few videos in without having to sit down for a 3 hour long online continuing ed course. We all know how tired we can be after work, so I find 10 minutes is the perfect amount of time for learning a few strategies.

 

2. Patient/Clinical Resources

This includes printable patient handouts, assessments, and evaluations that are easily printable to save you time from doing deep dives on Google.

 

3. Journal Club with Evidence-Based Articles

This section is awesome to make sure you’re keeping up with current research while also earning Professional Development Units. A new research article is added and emailed out monthly along with a discussion board so you can have your virtual journal club to keep yourself accountable.

 

4. Community Forum

The Learning Lab has both a private Facebook group and a forum on the Learning Lab website itself where you can ask any questions and Mandy will personally answer them, as well as other group members providing their professional input.

What Topics Does the Learning Lab Cover?

As I briefly mentioned above, the Seniors Flourish Learning Lab is geared towards adult and older adult-based occupational therapy, categorized by videos, tools, resources, and handouts. Listed below are the most-used resources, but these are just some of the topics that are covered:

• Upper Extremity Functional Exercises
• Safe Walker Use in the Kitchen
• How to Instruct in Trunk Control/Core Exercises and Activities
• Documentation: Goal Writing and SOAP Note Tips
• Dementia: Assessment, Goals and Treatment Series
• Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF) 101: Must-haves, common assessments, clinical tips, precautions, documentation tips, and treatment ideas
• Occupation-Based Balance Activities
• Activity Tolerance/Endurance Occupation-Based Ideas
• Group Treatment Ideas: Cognition
• Documentation Cheat Sheets and Guides

How Will It Help Your in Your Practice?

The Learning Lab will be a super helpful resource for you if you’re a fieldwork student, new occupational therapy practitioner working with adults, or if you’re a seasoned OT switching from pediatrics to adults. The Learning Lab is like having your own virtual mentor, which is awesome since getting in-person mentorship is getting harder to come by.

I really recommend the Learning Lab especially if you’re working solo in your setting, whether it’s acute care, home health, or in a small SNF setting. Mandy is very supportive and always takes the time to answer your questions and emails, as well as making helpful videos based on members’ questions.

The Learning Lab also has a huge focus on providing you with evidence-based resources while ensuring you’re providing the best creative and skilled interventions for your patients. It’s a win-win for you and for your patients.

I also love that the content is updated weekly, so you never run out of videos to watch (especially since the library has so many resources already!)

How Much Does the Learning Lab Cost?

For the Learning Lab, you can sign up for month to month payments of $18.99 or you can sign up for a full year for $169.99. If you choose to do the full year, you get three months free, saving $56.97 compared to the monthly option.

With each option, you have a “Hassle-free 30 Day Money Back Guarantee,” and if you choose the monthly option, you can cancel any time. You can cancel the yearly option before you hit the 30 day mark if you aren’t satisfied with your membership.

The One Challenge is…

You have to use your membership for it to be helpful! You may be thinking, “Well that’s common sense!” but I had to add it in because I’m guilty of this myself.

Whether it’s with online continuing education or with the Learning Lab, if I’m having a busy/stressful/tiring (insert excuse here) few weeks, I sometimes neglect my OT memberships and can easily let them go for a few months without using them.

If you’re paying for the Learning Lab, you should definitely set aside time each week/month to use it and truly benefit from it.

What really helps me are the monthly emails that keep me accountable. An example email that I just got from the Lab yesterday includes this schedule that you can follow:

• Week 1: Check out the two new Education Videos
• Week 2: New Journal in the Journal Club & celebrating everyone’s successes in the Facebook Group through “Wednesday WINS” (with a chance to win a free Starbucks gift card if you participate)
• Week 3: New Handouts and/or Clinical Resources
• Week 4: Journal Club discussion in the Facebook group

Following the Learning Lab’s weekly schedule will help you stay on track and make the most of out of your membership, so you aren’t just throwing money away without using it.

If you feel like you’re in a super busy place right now and don’t think you’ll have any time to put into the Learning Lab, you may want to wait until you can use it before signing up.

Wrapping Up…

I hope this review gave you some helpful information to help you decide if the Seniors Flourish Learning Lab is right for you. If you are ready to get started, click any of the Seniors Flourish Learning Lab links on this page.

If you have any questions about the Learning Lab, please always feel free to ask in the comments below or email me at sarah@myotspot.com.

You can also email Mandy Chamberlain (founder of the Learning Lab) directly any time with any questions at mchamberlain@seniorsflourish.com.

If you’re a Seniors Flourish Learning Lab member, what do you think about it? What would you share with prospective users?

Affiliate Disclosure: The following review post is solely based on my own experience using the Seniors Flourish Learning Lab. By signing up for the Learning Lab using these links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These commissions go straight back into the operation costs of My OT Spot to continue to provide you with great occupational therapy content. Thank you for your support!