The senior living industry has already upped its wellness game in the last few years, but operators are taking their practices aimed at keeping residents well to an even higher level in 2024.
It’s no secret that wellness has evolved beyond food and nutrition since it became a hot topic in the last few years. Today, senior living operators are going even further by integrating new technology, designs and practices all meant to meet a growing demand for wellness and sophistication from incoming older adults.
Not long ago, senior living fitness centers resembled that of hotels, with step machines, treadmills and maybe some freeweights. But that has since changed, according to Paige Hoffman, director of sustainability at Cordia Senior Living.
Charleston, Massachusetts-based Cordia has incorporated forward-thinking concepts like balance harnesses for residents, new machines that test residents’ cognitive motor skills and “exergaming,” a portmanteau of exercise and gaming, Hoffman said during the recent Senior Housing News ReBUILD conference in Chicago.
Incoming residents also have new and potentially more complex wants and needs than those who came before them, and are drawing cues from social media, according to Cate O’Brien, vice president of community initiatives at Mather and vice president at the Mather Institute.
Mather has upped its wellness game in response by adding things like pilates equipment, virtual reality and new spas with tech such as halogenerators and high-tech massage and therapy devices.
For both operators, those practices and new uses stemmed from listening to what current and prospective residents are looking for and re-examining their physical community spaces to better incorporate aspects of wellness.
“Listen to the residents, listen to the prospective residents. What are they asking about?”” Hoffman said during a panel at reBUILD. “The second thing we do is look around and say, ‘All right, what are the areas in our spaces that we’re not using well?”
Technology and wellness integration
Senior living operators such as Cordia, Evanston, Illinois-based Mather and Solana Beach, California-based Senior Resource Group (SRG) have increased technology usage and tie-ins over the past five years with a focus on giving new residents what they want.
It is sometimes said that the previous generation of senior living residents desired not much more than “three hots and a cot.” But the incoming generation of older adults expects much more from senior living, including the “technology in their daily lives … telecommunications, telemedicine, control of the Alexas of the world,” said Daniel Perez, vice president of real estate development and construction with Senior Resource Group.
“We are collecting that data because in the near future, the baby boomers … are going to be expecting that in the projects,” he added.
In order to meet this need, Perez said SRG is renovating and repositioning older communities with a focus on deploying new technology and integrating it into its programming and operations.
“Within community areas like physical therapy … we have to connect with that resident’s doctor and understand the physical therapy that they’re doing,” he said. “We now have to think about all those things and make sure that those get included in our topics for a new acquisition that didn’t count for it when they were designed.”
SRG is actively collecting and tracking data from its communities, particularly through appliance usage. The operator is doing so to determine what is not being used on a regular basis and streamline or even eliminate some operational costs, according to Perez.
Alongside the advances in virtual reality programming and spa options, Mather uses body composition machines and scales that measure muscle mass to educate and motivate residents who use its fitness centers.
Hoffman said that not all of the company’s recent wellness additions are necessarily exciting to new residents. One of the best recent tools that Cordia has deployed is operational software that integrates with pharmacies, external doctors and nurses, internal certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and family members to provide concierge wellness services and help navigating healthcare systems.
“While the other things are exciting, that’s been a huge tool in helping with wellness,” Hoffman said.
Redesigning communities for wellness
With the current costs of new development, more senior living operators are focusing on redesigning, repositioning and redeveloping older communities to grow and evolve. While this allows operators to breathe new life into an older community, it also allows for unique opportunities to enhance wellness features.
One example of this in practice is how Cordia renovated and redesigned Cordia at Grand Traverse Commons, which occupies the same space as the former Traverse City State Hospital in Traverse City, Michigan. When Cordia renovated the community prior to its 2013 opening, the operator added design features such as 13-foot ceilings, large windows, spires and grand porches.
Cordia’s renovations were aimed at building social connection and instilling a sense of “community within a community,” Hoffman said.
“It attracts a resident who is excited about something a little different or unique,” she said. “It’s historically maintained, which means we are constantly working the puzzle of figuring out how to update and how to modernize while still working within 12-to-18 inch brick walls.”
As Hoffman noted, Cordia often lets residents act as the north star for how their renovation plans shape up.
“One example [at another community] is we had a really big library, and it’s just not getting as much use as it used to,” Hoffman said. “We need a second dining venue, and so we’re redesigning some of that space to allow for a pub which allows more social time.”
Perez noted SRG is always looking for new opportunities to expand a community’s offerings from within rather than building anew. Typical conversions include increasing the size of units to better accommodate current residents, increasing the amount of natural light coming into a community and better incorporating new technologies, though Perez said that is one of the challenges the company regularly faces following an acquisition.
“When we have built something 20 years ago, and now we’re building something new, the program is completely different. The demographic is completely different,” Perez said. “So we’re … looking into what we can be doing within the next five to 10 years.”
