Technology isn’t important; how you use it, is.
Coined by Joseph Coughlin of AgeLab, an “ageless community” is “designed to be exciting for everyone across the lifespan”. Coughlin outlines the following four guiding principles senior-facing agencies must adopt in order to make their communities ageless:
- Activities- both necessary (e.g. health centers) and desirable (e.g. cafes)
- Intensity- an engaging sense of community
- Density- of housing and services available
- Accessibility- of information, transportation and communication
Who Needs Ageless Communities?
While the term “ageless community” has been emerging in our industry’s consciousness, the truth is that the desire for ageless communities has always existed; this is simply a new term to describe the concept of a fun, convenient and liveable place where people want to spend their time.
Creating an ageless community is absolutely vital to success for Assisted and Independent Living facilities, CCRCs, active adult communities and other senior-facing agencies. Simply put, the current generation of retirees have spent their entire lives having the world redesigned around their needs, and expect nothing less in their older age.
Consider this: 58% of Baby Boomers expect their financial security to be about the same, better, or much better than their parents’ generation1, and 55% expect to have sufficient income for both basic living and travel and leisure activities in retirement2, despite having minimal nest eggs.
Looking beyond the Boomer-specific generation, living somewhere fun and filled with Coughlin’s four principles of activities, intensity, density and accessibility is what every person wants, regardless of age or generation. Living in this type of environment meets basic human desires to feel a sense of purpose, and give meaning to one’s life.
How to Create an Ageless Community using Purpose-Driven Technology
How does an ageless community relate to technology? Industries across the board tirelessly seek out new, innovative technologies to make business operations more productive, offer amenities to make their clients’ lives better, and increase revenue. Adopting a new technology isn’t a silver bullet solution, though: it must be the right solution, at the right time and with the correct implementation in order to make a valuable difference. Without purpose-driven technology, you will lose the value of your initial investment in unused tech, but market share as well to the senior living centers who are doing it right.
You can implement purpose-driven technologies today to create an ageless community and meet consumer demands while increasing your bottom line.
But how can you identify which technological solutions are purpose-driven? Ask the following questions:
- Does it provide a variety of necessary and desirable activities?
- Does it facilitate an engaging sense of community?
- Is the technology within easy reach of your community members?
- Is it familiar to them with little to no learning curve?
- Does it offer on-demand services?
Ageless Communities in the Digital Age
Purpose-driven technology can be successfully implemented to make your community more ageless by offering a greater variety of easily accessible activities along with people who actively participate in them. Ultimately, the right technology can both help keep people together and connected, and enable your staff to engage with residents more frequently in a cost-effective way.
Remember: ageless communities are already here. They’re located in city centers where younger populations live, in the heart of metropolitan cities like LA and NYC. Bring purpose-driven technologies to your center in order to create an ageless community… one where you’d actually want to live.
Sources
- Financial Security in Retirement, Compared to Parents
http://myirionline.org/docs/default-source/research/iri-boomer-expectations-for-retirement-2015-fifth-annual-update-on-the-retirement-preparedness-of-the-boomer-generation_2.pdf?sfvrsn=2 - Retirement Budget Expectations
http://myirionline.org/docs/default-source/research/iri-boomer-expectations-for-retirement-2015-fifth-annual-update-on-the-retirement-preparedness-of-the-boomer-generation_2.pdf?sfvrsn=2
