From LeadingAge 2016 – One-time topics or notable signals of trends?

LeadingAge ended last week, leaving tea leaves about the future.  This annual conference is the largest for the world of non-profit senior housing companies – and while much of it focuses on the tactical, a number of sessions tackled change, some of it wrenching for this industry. We already know that older adults in the future will find fewer and smaller nursing homes, and the ones remaining will be more focused on acute care, driven, as always, by payments, policies and the significance (big) of higher move-in ages. One session coached about 'abandonment' of strategies no longer needed.  These changes necessitate innovation among the organization 6000 member companies – and the mix of services that these companies provide. The schedule of sessions merit careful look at possible innovations. Here are four topics that signal changes:

• Connecting generations through residency programs.  It remains to be seen how feasible this is in some areas where CCRCs, uh, Life Plan Communities, are on campuses far removed from urban areas or any actual college campuses.  But the concept is a winner:  residency programs that forge “ongoing intergenerational connections between elders and college or graduate students through artist-in-residence or live-in programs.” And examples, for profit as well, are multiplying: Judson Park in Cleveland – and even, as in this Dutch example, rent-free residences for students.

• Higher Entry Ages: Actuarial, Marketing and Operational Implications.  This is a big deal for the industry, both for-profit and non-profit communities, rental and buy-in.  Note recent admission of miscalculating demand for many years, building for 75-year-old prospects when the actual is nearly 84 (a 40% reduction in prospects in 2015).  And the Society of Actuaries published life expectancy averages are a further complexity – 88.8 for women and 86.6 for men. This means building or retrofitting for the ever-more frail, accommodating the 70% with cognitive impairment, mobility issues (getting rid of tripping and wheelchair obstacles) and the up to 70% with incontinence.

• Mining Wifi Data About your Community.  There were a number of tech-related sessions at LeadingAge, but this one was startling – since WiFi access deployment is increasingly a requirement in the CCRC/AL world, what about doing data analysis of what it is used for and by whom? Staffers on Facebook?  Or see how the residents are benefiting from the use of WiFi for telehealth activities, social connection with family, and life enrichment. Remember how SpectiCast broadcast live Philadelphia orchestra from the 2009-2010 series?).  One wonders why there are not more of these types of amenities in more places – which seems like it would be a marketing differentiator to families.

• Why Virtual Rehabilitation/Jintronix – Pilot outcomes.  Even though Microsoft did show interest in the use of its Kinect offering for rehab– it seems that a few companies, including Reflexion Health, VirtualRehab, VirtualWare, and Jintronix, still see an opportunity “as an adjunct to hands-on physical therapy can improve outcomes and at-home adherence.” And why not – scholarly papers had already validated virtual gaming techniques for stroke rehabilitation.  

[Distributed by Feedburner, this post, the full blog, articles and reports can be found on the website Aging in Place Technology Watch.]