August 5-August 18, 2015 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— Page 37
Senior Housing & Care
Jeff Dawson
Many baby boomers are seeing
the elaborate amenities of some new
communities and may be downsizing
earlier, but
this also
is mak-
ing them
aware of
alternative
services
that will
equip them
to live at
home lon-
ger. Our
memory
care clients
anticipate
seeing in-
home care
skyrocket
in the com-
ing years along with senior apart-
ments. As a result, they fully expect
to see external health care services
continue to expand.
It’s not a surprise that many baby
boomers are doing a lot of research
online first and expect their family
member’s future community to have
all the bells and whistles of a hotel,
but they don’t want their parents’
savings, or their own savings, paying
for it. Some developers and operators
are seeing baby boomers focusing on
what they would like in a physical
environment rather than focusing
on the actual care their loved one
needs. In order for many providers
to make it in this highly competitive
marketplace, they have to go big or
go home, since small projects don’t
seem to make financial sense. This is
especially true when factoring in the
reimbursement rates of government
programs.
Specific to memory care focused
assisted-living environments, baby
boomers want spacious common
spaces, but this can be a problem
for residents with memory loss.
They want spa tubs, individual
bathrooms and private suites. Many
expect every room to have a TV,
which is really not appropriate for
memory care residents. According
Azura Memory Care, one of Studio
Architecture’s current clients, baby
boomers with memory loss need
frequent personal interaction, which
the TV clearly does not provide.
They see residents become more
withdrawn or experience catastroph-
ic outbursts when left in front of a
TV for long periods of time.
Of course, a resident’s care is what
matters most. As Paula Gibson,
Azura Memory Care’s director of
communication so aptly puts it,
“It is imperative that families look
beyond what is hanging on the walls
and to who is walking the floors.”
In response to this need, Studio
Architecture listens closely to their
clients who typically have many
decades of experience operating
memory care communities. We focus
on creating physical environments
that will help caregivers provide the
best possible care for their residents
while attracting baby boomers with
increasingly high expectations for
their communities.
Doug Ahlstrom
A son or daughter comes to tour
your assisted living community,
interviews the executive director and
speaks with
staff, antic-
ipating a
smooth
transition
of their
loved one
into what
might pos-
sibly be
their last
residence.
Chances
are that
the indi-
vidual tour-
ing your
community
is a baby
boomer: Conscientious, picky, living
to a higher aesthetic standard, tech
savvy and always looking for options
and the best deal on everything. I
mean everything!
With boomers unsatisfied with
what is being offered in the way of
new homes to age in place, they also
are unsatisfied with what is being
offered to their parents in assisted
living. Boomers are reinventing what
assisted living looks like.
Assisted-living owners should ask
themselves, “Do we have what the
boomers are looking for and how
does that translate into the actual
needs of their parents?”
Good question. Like 60 is the new
40, 85 is the new 65. With advances
in medicine, we are living longer and
have somewhat healthier lives. While
boomers are thinking “cruise ship
vacation-style living with residences
surrounded by classy amenities,”
current surveys indicate that the
parents are less impressed with the
amenities and focused more on the
experience of truly feeling at home
in their private space. And that
space needs to include not only space
for themselves, but also room for
their pets and visiting family mem-
bers.
Certainly, boomers’ parents are
looking for a great place to live and
activities that will connect them
socially. Fitness and wellness are
important, as is the dining experi-
ence. Flexibility and options in these
areas are major considerations when
selecting a community. Additionally,
owners can explore partnering with
the neighborhood to expand options.
Residents want to engage with the
neighborhood, join social groups and
have activities outside their com-
munity. This will assist the owner
in reducing the overall footprint
of the building, plus help decrease
costs that would otherwise be passed
down to the resident.
Living longer poses additional con-
cerns. While boomers’ parents are
financially more secure than their
children, affordability still plays a
major role with the boomers’ selec-
tion to ensure that residency lasts as
long as their parents’ lives.
So the ultimate goal is to deter-
mine how you, the owner, provide
the most efficient, highly amenitized
community that will deliver the best
project within the smallest box possi-
ble catering to the boomers selecting
the community, while providing the
best experience for their parents.
Lisa M. Cini
The state-of-the-art assisted-living
model of 20 years ago existed prior
to mainstream Internet. This means
that in
1995, the
Internet
was just
being intro-
duced to
businesses.
To make
the point,
let’s say
you have
access
to the
Internet
but you
choose not
to use the
technology because it’s silly, with all
the Facebook stuff and the costs to
have it access to the Internet.
You need to research something
so you go to the library (yes, they
still exist) and you search through
the system to find out which books
may be of value. You then get their
Dewey Decimal numbers and you’re
off on a hunt. The books are all over
the library and intermixed. They’re
heavy, but that means value, right?
You then look at each one, looking
for a hidden treasure of evidence;
finally, you find your nuggets. When
the information is short, you hand-
copy it down but when it’s large
you mark the page and then copy it
at the copier. After all the research
is completed you have to return
the books. If you missed something
and can’t remember which book
it came from, you have to start all
over. There is no cookie history to
lead you back to where you were. As
you can imagine, this was tedious to
write; just detailing it out felt like a
waste of time, yet systems in senior
living are very much like what I
have just described, using archaic
systems because they exist and are
familiar.
Boomers expect to be able to bring
their technology with them when
entering into senior living. They
have engaged in home sensors to
manage their thermostats, set their
security systems, check on loved
ones and record their favorite TV
shows for later. They read, listen to
music, cook and engage with others
on their tablets. They have wear-
able technology to keep themselves
fit and monitor their heart rate and
sleep. They do not expect to go back
in time to a Dewey Decimal system.
Wi-Fi is an absolute must for
boomers. Other technologies are
coming on line as heated bidet night-
light toilet seats, hearing looping
technology, induction cooktops with
auto shutoffs, DVR-playback for TV,
online courses and sensors to help
save energy and increase safety that
look hip vs. medical.
Evaluating the right-fit technolo-
gies for you and your residents and
then ensuring a return on invest-
ment will be the key.
Gary Prager, AIA, LEED AP
Hmmm… Where do I want to live?
This is the question that I ask
myself, and I know many other
boomers are asking it too.
It has been estimated that in the
next 35 years there will be three
times as many people in the world
over the age of 60 as there are today
– an increase from 600 million to
2 billion. Not only is this a shift in
pure numbers but it is also a major
shift in how this group purchases
services.
The previ-
ous gen-
eration has
tended to
be passive
in their
expecta-
tions of
wellness
and health
care. But
the “com-
ing of age”
of boomers
is providing
a wakeup
call to our
current
status quo for senior life: a very out-
spoken consumer.
As architects and developers, we
are listening to the needs of these
residents. Baby boomers have a very
different mindset about wellness and
health care delivery, technology and
services. They also often look for eco-
friendly communities that are well
integrated to the larger population.
These demands require that design
change from operator centered to
resident centered.
Changing mindset in the deliv-
ery of wellness and health care are
increasingly shaping development,
building design and investment
models. Future residents demand
high-quality, holistic wellness ser-
vices, which are not only influenc-
ing where facilities are built, but
also how they are built. They seek
therapeutic environments allowing
for spontaneous and self-initiated
opportunities connecting to wellness,
nature and people. Boomers will
arrive with active lifestyles, a thirst
for learning and with a desire for a
strong connection to outdoors, social
activities, nearby amenities and fit-
ness/wellness. Yet, boomers demand
communities to be safe, respectful
and promote independence based on
abilities not disabilities.
Technology will play an even big-
ger role in boomers lives than ever
before. Technology throughout the
campus is essential to keep con-
nected to the flat world: To stay in
touch, to continue learning and even
to telecommute as boomers look to
stay engaged in the workforce longer
than ever before. And with tele-
medicine and implantable technology
available, technology is imperative
for the maintenance of their own
health care: improving outcomes
while reducing costs. Flexible, inte-
grated technology infrastructure
is no longer a feature – it is now a
requirement for senior living com-
munities.
Connectivity to surrounding neigh-
“How are baby boomers reinventing the assisted-living model?”
Question of the Month
Please contact Pyms Capital Resources or The Highland Group if you would like to participate in the Senior Housing & Care Question, or if you have a question that you would like to see addressed.
Gary Prager,
AIA, LEED AP
Principal and senior life
practice lead, H+L Architecture
Doug Ahlstrom
Independent consultant
to service enriched seniors
market
Lisa M. Cini
Principal, Mosaic Design Studio
Jeff Dawson
Founder and managing
principal, Studio Architecture
