By Rick Banas of Gardant Management Solutions
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to serve as a panelist for a discussion on “How Senior Living Providers are Reaching Boomer’s” at the 2015 What’s Next Boomer Business Summit that was held in Chicago.
Steve Moran of Senior Housing Forum led the discussion. Also serving as panelists were Bailey Beeken of SMASH, Paula Ledbetter of Mather LifeWays, and Katie Roper of Caring.com.
I highlighted how we place a significant focus on social media as those in the Boomer generation are using the social media to learn about the senior living, assisted living and memory care options that are available for a loved one. They also are checking us and our communities out on the Internet before stopping in to visit or calling in for more information.
We are using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. We are posting a Blog at least once a week and publishing an E-Newsletter once a month.
Our Blogs and E-Newsletters feature news and information that would be of interest to older adults and their families, especially Baby Boomers, in addition news and information about our company and the communities we operate.
Some of most recent Blogs, for instance, focused on Billy Crystal’s call for Baby Boomers to lower the boom on ageism, family members citing the benefits of assisted living, and tips for making the holidays more enjoyable and safer for seniors.
Through our working relationship with CareMerge, we also are now using a web-based communication app to send messages, photos, activity calendars, and reminders about upcoming activities to residents and their family members.
While at the conference, I had the opportunity to attend other sessions, listening to what others had to say. Here are some of the things I found most intriguing.
Sally Abrahms, writer and blogger on senior housing, aging and Boomers, talked about aging in place technology and the movement toward co-housing and bringing services to people.
Lisa McCraken of Ziegler noted that Baby Boomers will likely have greater chronic health care needs because of the prevalence of such health issues as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension. Addiction and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression also are more prominent in the Boomer population.
Terry Clark of the United Health Group indicated that nearly two-thirds of those 50 years of age and older have at least two chronic health care conditions and that people are living longer with the chronic conditions.
There was a lot of talk about the Boomers desire for more options and more choices on one hand and the tremendous need for affordable housing options on the other because of the high percentage of Baby Boomers who are not prepared financially for retirement. The estimates are that two-thirds of the Boomer population have almost no savings and will be relying on Social Security to get them through their retirement years.
In her keynote address, Nora Super, Executive Director of the 2015 White House Conference on Aging, talked about how we need to rethink how we achieve financial security in retirement and expand the options that are available to us to save for our retirement years.
After all, we have gone from relatively few people living in retirement for maybe five years to many people living for 25 to 30 years.
Nora also talked about the need to focus on ways to encourage healthy aging and healthy habits – preventing illness and managing chronic conditions; ways to provide training and support to professionals and family members who serve as caregivers; and ways to prevent abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of older adults.
What are your thoughts?
All affordable assisted living communities managed by Gardant Management Solutions. are certified and surveyed by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. All assisted living communities are licensed and surveyed by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“Gardant Management Solutions is the leading provider of assisted living in Illinois
and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let us know.
