Executive Director of Sherbrooke Community Centre, Saskatoon, based on a village model and the Eden Alternative. Beatty is also a Western Canada Co-ordinator for the elder-centred movement begun by Dr. Bill Thomas.
(www.sherbrookecommunitycentre.ca)
What recent developments will have the greatest impact on aging and the retirement residence sector over the next five years?
Seniors will be an increasingly large percentage of the population. I don’t think they will be satisfied with what is currently being offered. They’ll expect more. And that is terrific. But let’s meet higher expectations because it is the right thing to do.
Many facilities for long-term care and assisted living have been designed around the needs of the providers. That is a totally unacceptable approach. We need to shift the design of our facilities from the provider’s view to the needs of the people receiving the services.
We’ve brought attitudes from the medical model for critical care into seniors’ accommodation, suggesting “we know what’s best for you.”
Other approaching developments will be the growth of Alzheimer’s disease (diagnoses are doubling each decade). And because people are living longer with some diseases, we will also need to provide more chronic care than before.
How is our concept of senior wellness changing?
We should look at older adulthood not as a disease but as a rich development of life. We should expect to be living full abundant lives. The boomers will help us with that too. I think the boomers will also be healthier than the generation coming behind them.
What are we learning about boomer retirement plans and hopes as they age?
I’m a boomer so I know something about what we may want. We won’t all want to quit work and live with strangers. We’ll want to live with our friends and not be segregated from our kids. We’ll want to continue to be part of the world. People who complain about the chicken at dinner and talk about their bowels are people cut off from stimulation.
What seniors’ housing industry direction gives you the most concern these days? What makes you the most optimistic?
I’m happy about buildings that are beautiful but they also need to be breathing, full of life. Do assisted-living buildings have to be only for older people who don’t know each other? I understand the world may get smaller as you age, but this information age is changing that and we have to change too.
My own dream would be to build accommodation using a village house concept. Individual suites would surround common areas, a kitchen and lounge. In our village here at Sherbrooke Community Centre, nine or 10 people live in each of the 11 houses, bungalows, attached to an internal street. Each house has a front porch, a mailbox and a back door into a backyard. Inside, they look residential with kitchen, living room, dining room, bedrooms and laundry room. It hasn’t been more expensive.
Your advice for retirement residence executives as they plan for the next five years?
What we design for older adults should be a place anyone would want to live. A fragile older person would be happy there but so would a family. I worry about ghettos of seniors cut off from the real world. Old and young people learn from each other. Our design ideas should not be so limited.
About Muriel Duncan
