Senior Health The International Council on Active Aging (ICAA) recently gathered 85 independent-living, assisted-living, and memory-care leaders at an ICAA Forum to identify the “optimal community” that blends lifestyles and services that current residents desire with qualityof-life features that future residents will seek. They defined five associated trends for senior living in 2021.
According to McKnight’s Senior Living News, those trends include redefining the meaning of “community” by repositioning a seniorliving community as “an accessible neighborhood within the larger community” to make it easier to expand services to older adults and to open some services and amenities to nonresidents. Second, the Forum findings focused in on the need for expansion of both built and unbuilt environments, including increasing outdoor features like sidewalks, gardens, paths, and recreation, and using moveable walls inside to maintain flexibility, as well as increasing virtual healthcare spaces. Notably, the third trend they identified is a move to integrate technology through all operations, including providing technologyenabled spaces for staff and residents, both indoors and outdoors. Wearable technologies like activity trackers, heart-rate monitors, and rooms outfitted with smart utilities, remote monitoring, voiceactivated systems, and more will be crucial for senior-living
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Senior health and wellness have always been priorities for the senior-living industry, but maybe no more so than they have since the advent of COVID-19 into all of our lives. In fact, you would be challenged to find a single senior-living company or community that is operating just as it did before March 2020. As the senior population has received COVID vaccinations and some restrictions have begun to loosen, the definition of the “optimal” senior community also has changed, thanks in part to lessons learned via the pandemic.
DORCHESTER, NE—1962
Even though I’m miles away, Mom, we’re still connected, and I know you’re in great hands. Tabitha is the perfect fit for us, their resources are a blessing. TABITHA.ORG | 402.486.8520 | Your Answer for Senior 62
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