Toward Life Fulfillment…rethinking CCRC’s



by Richard Ambrosius

Leaders, like eagles, do not flock. You must seek them out one at a time. In the senior housing and healthcare industries, visionary eagles have been few and far between. This is not to say the design and amenities have not continued to be enhanced. It is not to say there are not thousands of dedicated caregivers providing needed services. Nevertheless, the image of the retirement community remains a place to step aside and let life go. The senior living industry cannot reverse this image simply by using barefoot, 86 year old water skiers or younger models in classier brochures.

Promotional materials talk of independent lifestyles and reinforce the message with photos of golfers, people swimming, playing tennis and enjoying meals together. The copy then begins to create a serious cognitive disconnect in the minds of savvy readers. Many a community promises the consumer friends, the assurance a team of professionals will plan their activities to take them wherever they want to go and to provide long-term care when the end is near. The visuals say independence and the copy explains in vivid detail how it will slowly strip away that autonomy in the name of community.

There are exceptions. Dr. Bill Thomas envisioned a new long-term care paradigm called the Eden Alternative/Green House that is growing in popularity in spite of paradigm keepers and health department bureaucrats. While many praise the philosophy, few fully embrace its application to their operational culture. As with marketing, operations are rooted in command and control hierarchies of the past founded on Newtonian logic that is out of step with today’s interactive society.

CCRC’s hold on to packages of services and meals that allow the consumer little choice or autonomy…and what autonomy exists is eroded as the need for care escalates. Many happy older adults move to a community in their 80’s…when they were finally ready. Unfortunately, they missed many of the benefits to body, mind and spirit by waiting until their physical health was beginning to fail. Yet, CCRC’s generally attract consumers based on need rather than a desire to pursue a more fulfilling life.

As long as marketing strategies depend on fear and urgency, the CCRC industry will continue to attract older and older consumers. Over emphasizing care and the physical aspects of aging, position your product to a dependent consumer. The medical models of long-term health care of the past simply have not worked and will become less effective as baby boomers reach maturity…the power of the human spirit is not to be denied.

Even science is waking up and getting into the act, as reported in the August issue of the British Medical Journal. The article reported the results of a 13-year longitudinal study by Harvard University of 2,761 residents of New Haven, Connecticut who were over the age of 65. Here is a brief summary of the results:

The purpose of the study was to determine if activities such as day trips, bingo, gardening, community work and going to church and the cinema compared with physical fitness in prolonging life. Surprisingly factors known to contribute to longer life, such as superior health or education, did not influence the results significantly. Those who were the most socially active lived about 4 years longer while those who exercised the most frequently increased their longevity by only 2.5 years.

Dr. Thomas Glass, who led the study, did warn that the findings couldn’t be construed to mean that being constructive is better than exercising when it comes to extending life because the categories were not compared with each other. Still, it is the strongest circumstantial evidence we’ve had to date that having a meaningful purpose at the end of life lengthens life.

This study proves that it is possible to reverse the self-fulfilling prophecy that later life is all about decline and dependency. It is a wake-up for the senior living industry to rethink how they operate CCRCs…to look beyond the buildings, activities and amenities and speaks to the human spirit with a message of challenge and autonomy.

The results of this research speak to developers, architects and CCRC leadership of the need to reinvent programming and operations.  Long term care centers do not all have to look the same, smell the same or be depressing. They can be places to celebrate the power of the human spirit over the frailties of the body by keeping people as involved in possible.

Contrary to the opinions of copywriters and ad agencies most mature consumers accept aging and have no desire to remain narcissistic adolescents for life…not even leading-edge baby boomers. Mature consumers are not searching for a place to be entertained, transported and directed by a young activity director while they wait for the day they need around-the-clock care. They do not need a counselor to help choose a future home.

Those who are aging successfully see life as a blank canvas. The future landscape will be painted using a palate of experience, aspirations and the need for lifelong personal growth and fulfillment. They are not seeking someone to paint the picture for them; but a place that nourishes the artist inside.

Current marketing campaigns are not attracting the younger, active mature adult because they offer them nothing they do not already have. The affluent have long-term care insurance policies, club memberships, season tickets to the opera/symphony, etc. and a spacious dwelling. They are in search of a place where eagles will gather…not a crow’s nest from which to watch the rest of the world.

Eagles see the challenge of a chess game or bridge tournament; not a game room. They see a stage on which to reconnect with their inner child seeking the applause of appreciative fans; not a large multipurpose room with a stage. They see opportunities for community service, either socially or politically, in the empty meeting rooms – not card parties and ice cream socials. They are seeking computer classes, not ceramics classes.

Just as they challenged the systems of the 60’s, baby boomers will demand something different. They will challenge outdated systems, patronizing programming and attempts to keep them from soaring…and be encouraged to do so by the generation now seeking something different in community living. Moreover, these eagles are beginning to gather in search of leaders who will re-invent retirement communities.

Generally, today’s buildings, facilities and designs are fine. What is missing is a new paradigm…a totally new way to view the market potential. It is time to reverse the self-fulfilling prophecies of aging. It is time to trash the marketing lessons tested on the young culture of the past that emphasizes hyperbole over reality. It is time to offer optimum autonomy, a better quality of life, enhanced longevity, health and well-being in addition to amenities.  It is time to offer a gathering of eagles places from which they can soar.