Easing Concerns with Service Offerings
It is never an easy task for seniors to decide to move out of their home. It is a daunting task for families as well. How can they decide on the best senior living facility for their family members? Most seniors and their families have a handful of significant concerns like safety, health, and boredom [1]. They look for a facility that will ease those worries.
Safety and Security
This is perhaps the biggest concern for families. Will their loved ones be safe in your community?
The best way for you to address this concern is by offering life-safety technology. Equip your residence with features like medication reminders. Ensure that your residents cannot easily forget to take important medicines. Even seniors without mental health concerns can use reminders to assist their memory.
Use a system that allows you to make presence calls. Once you set it up, the system makes regular calls to residents. This way, you’re alerted in time if they’re experiencing a medical incident.
It is a given that senior living communities will have medical staff on call. But how do you know when a senior needs help? Life safety tools can notify professionals in case of an emergency. Family members will sleep better knowing that help is at hand for their loved ones.
Safety and security should be the highest priority for any senior living community. Show seniors and their families that you can take care of their health.
Physical Health
As the human body grows older, it’s important to stay active. However, it is not easy for seniors to maintain an active lifestyle. Exercise is an important part of physical health. So what can you do to help your residents stay fit?
It is simple enough to offer gym facilities or exercise machines. But not all your residents like going to the gym. Provide alternatives such as group exercise or yoga classes. Many seniors prefer group classes as it allows them to interact with others.
You can also organize off-campus activities like botanical walks or bird watching tours. These activities combine social interaction with physical activity. Make it fun so your residents won’t feel like they’re exercising at all!
Mental Health
Many seniors suffer from mental health issues or memory problems. Even otherwise, seniors should stay mentally active by engaging in intellectual activities. It can be something as simple as solving a crossword or sudoku puzzle every day.
Help your residents stay mentally fit by organizing community engagement events. Think board games, books, magazines and puzzles. Games are a good way to stimulate memory and cognitive functions. But more than that, they’re fun to play!
You can also organize lecture series for those who want to continue learning. Have a guest lecturer or two on interesting topics. It’s a good way to socialize and gain knowledge at the same time.
Social Isolation
Feeling isolated is a real problem for seniors as they grow older. Many seniors have retired from active professional lives. They no longer have daily contact with colleagues and friends. At the same time, children might have moved far away for their careers.
A senior living facility needs to feel like a community. Ease concerns about social isolation by organizing regular events. Recognize and celebrate the holidays with games, parties or barbecues. Have game nights for board games and video games. Encourage residents to form teams and hold tournaments!
Any event that brings everyone together and allows them to socialize is a good idea. Engaging your residents in social events will help them stay active.
Connectivity
Another concern for seniors and their families is connectivity. Social events are a great way to interact with other residents in the same community. But what about staying in touch with friends and family living elsewhere?
There was a time when seniors hesitated to use the latest technology. Today’s seniors are very different. Many are up to date on the latest devices and services. They use tablets and smartphones to talk or video chat with their children and grandkids. Quite a few families even play online games to stay in touch with each other.
You can facilitate these interactions by offering wireless connectivity. High-speed Internet and good quality audio calls are a necessity. These services should be reliable as well. Your residents should never have to worry about getting online. Now your residents can attend birthdays or graduation parties virtually! They don’t have to miss out on important family events just because they cannot travel.
Senior living facilities have evolved over the last decade. Your residence is more than just a medical facility for older citizens. It is a community of like-minded people with similar interests and goals. Show families that you recognize their worries. Your service offering should ease concern for their loved ones. Foster community engagement and you’ll soon have people look forward to moving here!
Sources:
- https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/2013-11-12-biggest-fears-of-senior-living/