Paradigm Shift Places Demands on Senior Living Facilities

A recent poll revealed that most Americans would like to live to between 79 and 100-years old, as long as they are relatively fit and mentally sound.According to recent studies, the 90-year-olds of today are more physically and cognitively active than the nonogenarians who have come before. It is this population of active and engaged seniors inspiring the current trends that are revolutionizing senior living communities.

As Baby Boomers become more involved in the care of their aging parents, their influence on, and interest in, all things senior grows - not only for their parents, but also for themselves for their future. Together, these two groups of active, educated, and longer-lived Americans are revolutionizing senior living communities as we know them by demanding senior living communities that go beyond the historical expectations.

We are currently witnessing a paradigm shift in senior living communities, and these shifts are making active living communities a place where people look forward to retiring. Today's active and assisted living communities will work to provide continuing education, a wealth of activities and organized adventures, academic and hobby-based classes, and holistic health and wellness programs for a proactively healthy retirement. Combine these trends with environmentally conscious facilities, implementation of innovative technology for communication and fall prevention, as well as increased research and treatment for Alzheimer's and dementia, and future generations will be able to look back and say the Baby Boomer generation revolutionized the way seniors age in America.

These trends are:

1. Health and wellness programs that empower seniors to be engaged in their holistic well-being.
2. Providing opportunities for seniors to continue their lifelong love of learning.
3. Promoting sustainable, energy-efficient communities that leave as minimal of a footprint as possible.
4. Utilizing available technology to facilitate communication with residents and their families, monitor resident health and safety, and strengthen fall prevention safeguards.
5. Expand memory care to provide the most effective and compassionate care to those who suffer from Alzheimer's, dementia, and other medical conditions that impair cognitive function.

These trends are already set in motion and are changing the way society thinks about senior living options.

1.  Making strides in the health and wellness category are dinging programs, under which communities are offering everything from ethnic options to local and organic ingredients to non-dairy and gluten free. As well as nutrition classes and growing their own food on the property.

2.  Wi-fi hot spots are becoming commonplace in addition to computer lounges, while computer labs with technicians and classes and online courses and activities are expected on the lifelong learning front.

3.  Residents appreciate a focus on sustainability, which might mean passive building techniques to promote low energy use, natural light and EnergyStar certified appliances.

4.  Technology will allow for a completely customized experience that caters to the specific needs of a resident, deepening on age, mobility and needs. “Residents will begin to have a choice in the technology packages that suit them,” the white paper finds. “For example, a newly retired couple may sign up for the voice reminders for daily and weekly activities and a fall alert system. Older residents, or residents with more advanced mental and physical conditions, can select a wider range of services, including check-in calls at various points in the day, or motion-detection sensors that can monitor a senior’s movements, or lack thereof, to notify healthcare providers if there is an issue.”

5. Technology also will aid in memory care, which will include helping to manage medications, Accent finds. Other memory care services will include assistance with activities of daily living, but also will have an eye toward cognitive and physical therapy. Music and art therapy, for example, will become more commonplace.


Photo is a test program of technology that plays a video for how to operate the sink and wash hands for an person with dementia.