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Report: 50 and Over: What’s Next? The oldest members of the first ‘youth’ generation, the boomers, have spent their lives transforming every aspect of popular culture. That means we all have a vested interest in what they’ll do next. A new report from AARP called, “50 and Over: What’s Next?” takes a closer look at what marketers can learn about this [...] |
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Aging and Dying in a Village in Papua New Guinea: Lessons My grandfather died this past September in his village (Biwat) on the Yuat River in East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea. He was an old man; probably in his early 80′s. His exact birthdate isn’t on any official record. Growing up in Canada did not allow for much opportunity to get to know him [...] |
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Will Future Innovations and Societal Changes Lead to Industry Obsolescence? Sadly, when you think about it, the private pay service-enriched sector of the seniors housing and health care industry is not that far from obsolescence now, if you define obsolescence as selling something no one wants. Of course, that’s a bit of an exaggeration because some people do want we are selling, or at least [...] |
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The Future of the Retirement Residence Industry Where is the retirement residence industry going? What is its future—and ours? The question is on everyone’s mind given the growing aging-in-place movement, boomers who may choose other alternatives and seniors whose budgets require more modestly priced options. To discover how we can attract the residents of the future, we asked Elaine Wood (Delmanor Seniors [...] |
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Celebrating ORCA Conference 2011! It was great to see everyone at this year’s ORCA conference at the beautiful Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood. The event was a first for me and for our new communications manager, Noel Ocol. We’re excited to share with you two editorial videos that were shot at the conference. Scroll down to hear what advice [...] | |
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Seniors tell Comfort Life what they want in retirement residence living Comfort Life recently held a focus group with members of a local older adult centre and I wanted to share with you some of their responses. Seniors ranged in age from mid 80s to 92 and included men and women. They were asked for their feedback on the 2011 issue of Comfort Life magazine—including a [...] |
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What kind of boomers will your future residents be—and what will they want? Michael Adams, co-founder of Environics and author of the recent book, “Stayin’ Alive: How Canadian baby boomers will work, play and find meaning in the second half of their adult lives,” spoke at the ORCA/OLTCA conference earlier this month. Adams outlined the four different types of boomers that he calls, “tribes”. The first two are [...] |
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Trillium Health Centre unveils vision for seniors’ health and wellness complex Comfort Life Media recently spoke to Janet Davidson, O.C., President and CEO, Trillium Health Centre, about Trillium’s vision for its future seniors’ health and wellness complex and how it will provide new housing and care options for Toronto seniors and their families. How will Trillium Health Centre’s seniors health and wellness complex compare to many [...] |
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Comfort Life magazine: New vision for 2011 As the retirement residence industry continues to battle the negative public perception of ‘nursing homes’ as well as the push for seniors to stay at home, it is vital that we show the rich quality of life available in retirement communities and how financially accessible they are. 2011 marks our biggest transformation to date into [...] |
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Comfort Life launches revised retirement home search site Comfort Life Media, a division of Our Kids Media has launched a striking revision of Top Retirement Homes. The newly revamped website is set to become a critical tool for Canadians searching for senior housing and for retirement home marketers across the country. Starting from its premium domain name and extending through many bold new [...] |
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Research opens doors for seniors Great things are afoot in Waterloo, Ont. Under the direction of Dr. Mike Sharratt, the Research Institute for Aging (RIA), an independent institute affiliated with the University of Waterloo (UW), is doing some very progressive work in seniors’ care. The institute receives generous funding support from Ron Schlegel, owner and operator of retirement and long-term [...] |
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Retirement Residence Trends for 2011 People love Top 10 lists. I love them myself. An American blog called Senior Housing News just released its Top 10 trends for the industry in the U.S. and I thought it would be interesting to reflect on one or two of their choices from a Canadian perspective. If you don’t pay attention to retirement [...] |
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The Hallmark of Abbotsford is community It was easy to be moved by Hallmark Retirement Corporation’s presentation on community involvement at last month’s BCSLA conference. The sincerity of owner Stan Hindmarsh and his Abbotsford, B.C. team was evident in what they shared with us including the importance they place on staff well-being, their experiences in Guatemala where residents and staff work [...] |
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Switching on brain and body to slow aging Brain Gym and More program shows benefits quickly as residents see themselves improving You can tell as you enter the recreation room that the residents are having fun. It’s not just their bodies they’re exercising but their brains too. Balloons are flying through the air, batted about by seniors armed with rackets made from wire [...] |
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Retirement Planning Association of Canada: Conference Highlights The Retirement Planning Association of Canada (RPAC) takes a holistic view of retirement by integrating both its financial and lifestyle aspects. Their conference this month reflected that broad focus with an excellent and varied roster of presenters including Dr. Amy D’Aprix, gerontologist and advisor to BMO Financial Group who spoke about the three stages of [...] |
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Meeting of the Minds for Retirement Residence Professionals – November 2010 Free resources on marketing, sales and management Comfort Life is pleased to announce the launch of the Meeting of the Minds seminar series to help you stay current with marketing trends in the retirement residence industry. Held across Canada, the sessions invite leaders in the retirement industry to share and discuss the direction of marketing [...] |
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Comfort Life Relaunch – Meeting of the Minds Nov 2010 Since 2001, Comfort Life – Canada’s Guide To Retirement Communities, has been helping seniors find retirement homes that meet their needs. This year marks a shift in the vision of Comfort Life with the changes in the landscape of media and marketing. Here’s a glimpse at what’s to come. We hope you’ll join us. Below [...] |
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Inside Revera’s move to acquire Comcare This month, retirement residence operator Revera entered into an agreement to acquire Canadian home care provider, Comcare Limited. The deal which is expected to close in early January 2011, will increase Revera’s home care division to approximately 4,600 people and create one of Canada’s largest home care providers operating in 29 cities across seven provinces. [...] |
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Poling walkers coming Come spring, don’t be surprised to see long lines of seniors heading along streets, river trails or country roads with walking poles in their hands. It appears an urban walking-pole craze is building up inside as well as outside retirement residences. Origin Active Lifestyle Communities are working with Urban Poling Inc. to train and certify [...] |
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Finding the right marketer, part two In a previous issue of DialoguePlus we explored the type of person who makes for a good marketer. As a reminder, you’re looking for someone who: Is empathetic Has great presentation skills Is mature in attitude, professional in appearance and eloquent in speech Has tremendous curiosity (wants to know every detail of each prospect’s life [...] |
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Children and elders learn from each other The walled retirement communities going up in her area troubled Sharon MacKenzie. The walls might provide security, but they also seemed a tangible sign of increased alienation between generations. A Grade 5 teacher at the Kidston Elementary School in Vernon, B.C., MacKenzie saw society separating generations both physically and socially; children and elders weren’t getting [...] |
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Living Green at Delmanor and Origin Retirement Residences Making Environmentally Conscious Choices Seniors who make environmentally conscious purchases every day can now evaluate retirement communities in the same way before they select a residence to live in. In the past few years more companies have been designing greener retirement residences in Canada allowing residents to live in a green way and [...] |
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Finding the right marketer for your residence or chain As the retirement housing industry has matured and become more sophisticated over the past 25 years, so has the sector’s approach to marketing and sales. Today, most residences have a staff member dedicated to the marketing and sales function. After all, it costs money to bring in sales leads and, once you have them in [...] |
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US seniors housing starts down but supply still growing In the United States, much has been made of the lack of new construction and “the ensuing emptying of the construction pipeline for seniors housing properties” says an article in June issue of the NIC Insider newsletter. That’s part of the story. NIC, the National Investment Centre for seniors housing and care, a non-profit educational [...] |
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Facing changes in senior care together Report from the Together We Care Conference 2010 (hosted by ORCA and OLTCA) “We need wider consultations in a time of change; we need to talk to other decision-makers,” says Jane Barratt, Secretary General of the International Federation of Aging She mentions urban planners and architects but her list is clearly longer. It’s collective action [...] |
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Research: Flexing the brain at Baycrest Pair a leading cognitive science institute with an innovation centre and you get Cogniciti, a new company devoted to brain fitness products. Launched last December, Cogniciti brings together the research expertise of Toronto’s Baycrest health science centre and the resources of MaRS, an organization that nurtures entrepreneurial ventures. The for-profit company extends the work of [...] |
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Dance-floor research at Schlegel-UW RIA Back straight, heels together, toes out: seniors have been polishing their pliés as part of an ongoing study at Schlegel Seniors Villages in southern Ontario. Twice a week, residents learn new moves in classes taught by ballet or contemporary dance instructors. Led by Pat Spadafora through the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA) in Waterloo, [...] |
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An Opportunity to Celebrate A 93-year-old man works his way slowly to the stage. Since he’s blind, he is offered some assistance to navigate safely. He begins to play, hesitates and announces that he doesn’t like the way the piano is tuned. Completely unfazed, he turns to the contestant who just finished performing and asks to borrow his guitar. [...] |
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Pilot project supports those with mild dementia As the average age of seniors living in MCF Housing’s supportive living lodges in Calgary increased from 80 to 86 over 10 years, so did the number of residents with mild dementia. All front-line staff of MCF Housing for Seniors were trained in recognizing and understanding dementia. However, recognizing it is one thing; being able [...] |
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Ontario moves on regulation The provincial government’s move to regulate all of Ontario’s retirement residences will bring standards to an estimated 30 per cent of the industry that is not currently accredited by the Ontario Retirement Communities Association (ORCA). The regulations are expected to set standards for safety and staff training and provide a resident’s bill of rights. They [...] |
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Online connectivity tools improve your bottom line “Assisted living facilities are small; you don’t have a lot of staff. So if I have one Life Enrichment Coordinator, how is that one person going to reach every single person in this building and try to meet their needs?” asks Patty Kruger, Executive Director at Elder Homestead. Kruger is speaking in a video for [...] |
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Into the Pool for Massage Aquatic massage therapy at Riverside Court in New Brunswick Seniors can relax in the 96-degree therapy pool at Riverside Court Retirement Residence in Woodstock, N.B. They also have a registered massage therapist regularly on site. But even better, the therapist, Mary O’Leary, is also trained and approved to do aquatic massage therapy. An emerging alternative [...] |
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Everyone’s grandchildren In the halls of Devonshire Village, a seniors’ retirement residence in Edmonton, you often hear calls of “Hi, grandma. Hi, grandpa.” With a YMCA child-care centre at one end of their building, residents have no shortage of two- to four-year-olds to visit and cuddle. And the children have multiple grandparents. For Lara Hammons, Devonshire’s recreational [...] |
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Dogs at work and play at Hollandview Trail Retirement Community Black or white, big or small, the dogs understood they were attending an important pet party and generally behaved themselves. VIVA’s Hollandview Trail Retirement Community in Aurora, Ont., is pet friendly, so many of the community members came out and brought friends to an afternoon of fun and learning with a veterinarian, a dog trainer [...] |
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Catching the Olympic Spirit at Churchill House Olympic fever was rampant at Churchill House Retirement Community in North Vancouver in February, but the athletes competing on television were only part of the excitement. “We created our own Olympics,” says Leigh Vincent-Lambert, activity program director at the Chartwell community. “We had about 40 activities for body, mind and spirit.” Residents competed to pile [...] |
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Responding to Haiti’s plight News of Haiti’s crisis struck a chord in many retirement residences and long-term care homes across the country. Residents and staff responded quickly and generously. At Christie Gardens in Toronto, three residents asked executive director Grace Sweetman if the home would facilitate donations from anyone interested in giving. That night, staff slipped a letter under [...] |
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Cavendish Manor Wins Award of Excellence “My staff is phenomenal,” says Janice Amos, Executive Director of Cavendish Manor in Niagara Falls, Ont. And she has the award to prove it. The new Award of Excellence given by the Ontario Retirement Communities Association (ORCA) represents its “highest honor for service performance.” ORCA presented the award this spring to Cavendish Manor, its first [...] |
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Retirement homes’ staffing strategies in uncertain times Just as retirement residence employers were adjusting their strategies to deal with staffing shortages, the recession may have thrown them a changeup ball. Experts have been warning of an impending massive exit of baby boomers into retirement. Gaps in residence senior- and middle-management would emerge, they predicted, around the same time as the population bulge [...] |
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Seniors’ Housing Safety: Tougher measures urged Upgrades to Alberta’s safety regulations are being considered after recent fires forced 180 seniors from their independent and supportive care complexes. Weekend fires displaced 160 residents in independent or supportive living units in Edmonton, while in High River 20 seniors had to be evacuated from their home. The Alberta Senior Citizen’s Housing Association (ASCHA) has [...] |
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Rising Tide Of Dementia With a new case diagnosed every five minutes, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia is already a heavy human, health and economic burden in Canada. But a report this month by the Alzheimer Society of Canada warns that rate of incidence will increase to one every two minutes by 2038 and calls for a comprehensive national [...] |
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Rates and Rents: National Seniors’ Housing Survey Findings Released For the first time, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has produced a national survey on vacancy rates and rents in seniors’ residences that provide services. It found a wide range of vacancy rates across the country. Average rents vary, too, but that reflects, in part, the prevalence of services and amenities in each province. [...] |
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Ontario Collective Bargaining Report 2009 With Ontario experiencing continued low, even non-existent, levels of inflation, year-to-date private sector settlements wage increases were averaging 1.2 per cent in July and, Bass Analytics predicts, will go even lower. It is accompanied by “a precipitous decline in employment levels.” “Economic uncertainty and risk remain pervasive as the threat of a double-dip recession looms [...] |
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Off on safari or maybe Vegas That’s the mood these days at The Claremont, a Revera retirement residence in Toronto, as the 2010 calendars arrive. The calendars, much anticipated, have been raising money for charity for five years. Using the theme Around the World, each month reveals residents in a new exotic location: an African safari, the great China wall, the [...] |
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MCF Housing for Seniors receives $78,000 grant When the non-profit Metropolitan Calgary Foundation (MCF) Housing for Seniors received a $78,000 grant last year from Bow Valley College for a Workplace Essential Skills Training program (WEST), the project benefited staff, the company, the college which did the training, and Alberta Employment and Immigration which provided the funding. MCF acted as an” employee partner” [...] |
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Influential neuroscientist wins international award The pioneering work of Montreal neuroscientist Brenda Milner has been recognized by judges of the prestigious 2009 International Balzan Prize. As one of four winners of the prestigious award, she receives over $1 million dollars CDN, half of which must be dedicated to research. Milner, 91, who is a professor of psychology at the Montreal [...] |
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Atlantic senior housing research released The majority of Maritime seniors would like to remain in their own homes and communities. That’s quite clear from a four year, $1.2 million research project on Atlantic seniors housing needs. What is less clear is how that hope can be realized. However, a three-day conference in Halifax last spring brought the goal closer as [...] |
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New Seniors Research at Waterloo University A leading specialist in geriatric medicine has been appointed to a new research chair at the University of Waterloo in Ontario with the aim of applying a multi-disciplinary approach to health care for seniors. Dr. George Heckman, specialist in aging and cardiovascular disease, was appointed as the Schlegel Research Chair in Geriatric Medicine by the [...] |
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Baycrest in Partnership on Brain Fitness Products A new Canadian partnership announced last month intends to develop and market brain fitness products and services to extend memory and cognitive abilities. Baycrest, recognized as one of the world’s leading cognitive science centres, has joined with innovation centre, MaRS to form a for-profit company called Cogniciti to compete in the growing brain fitness market. [...] |
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Effective Leadership in Organizational Health, Safety and Wellness Effective Leadership in Organizational Health, Safety and Wellness, Books 1-5 Author, Published by: Ontario Safety Association for Community & Healthcare This new series of resource documents and educational programs covers Ontario codes and standards, employer due diligence, hazard awareness and control, accident cause analysis and prevention programs and achieving an integrated culture of safety. These [...] |
