Greenspring Village, an Erickson Living continuing care retirement community located in Springfield, Virginia, has received George Mason University’s first Senior Housing/Long Term Care Improvement Award for its dementia care program.

Greenspring Village was honored for its dementia and Alzheimer’s care project called “The Studio at Renaissance Gardens.” This is the first year that George Mason’s Annual Healthcare Quality Improvement Awards have included a category for senior housing or long-term care.

The Greenspring project entailed a comprehensive reconstruction project of a new 44-bed dementia care facility called “The Studio,” which is located within the existing Renaissance Gardens Health Care Center. Since building the new facility, officials say there has been a 67% drop in the average number medications required by residents. Additionally, the facility experienced a drop in the number of residents requiring psychotropic medications to 16%. Comparatively, the long-term care national average is 25.2%.