Tours Are Theater. Families Still See The Truth.
For nearly twenty years, one thing has felt inevitable: when boomers reach “old age,” senior living demand will surge. And yet …
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Author: guestcontributor
The Cost of Inaction: Delaying Finance Outsourcing
If your finance team is feeling the strain — or if you’re simply curious about how outsourcing could help — you don’t have to figure it out alone.
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Asking Favors as a Path to Friendship
“It is more annoying — and more relationship breaking — for you to never ask for anything than for you to ask for too many things.”
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Continuing Care at Home: How to Sell It — and Why It’s Hard To
What we keep getting hit in the face with is that 80+ percent of the older adults in the U.S. want to “age in place.”
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Residents Don’t Trust You. Here’s How to Change That.
We need to understand who today’s resident is and why they have a strong need to be involved in the decisions that affect their lives.
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Is This the Most Important Activity You Can Offer?
The reason I advocate for strength exercise so strongly is because I’ve seen firsthand how it translates into everyday functionality.
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What Can Communities Learn From Breakfast Cereal?
Like Kellogg’s, we must take a different approach to the senior living consumer. We must persuade them that our communities are the best solution.
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Wellness Wednesday: I Loved You Last Night
“I was glad I lived long enough to see all this, to understand a bit of it, and be engulfed in wonder and affection.”
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Great People Don’t Make a Great Team
It’s not as easy as “just hire great people,” and voila! You have a great team. That would be like a restaurant saying, “Just buy the best ingredients.”
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Busting the 1099 Worker Myths
Believing the myth about risk and 1099 workers can result in a community losing control over who the staffing agency will send.
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Rosemary, Dick, and Ruth — Authentic Love
When we think about love, it is often in the context of head-over-heels romantic love. But true, enduring love is like Rosemary; her husband, Dick; and her mother, Ruth.
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What’s in a Name?
Most buildings offer the same amenities. So, how do you position your building differently than the building down the street?
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10 Steps to Posting on Social Media for Health Care Marketers
Think of social media as an online open house for your organization — join the party, show up as your authentic self.
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Why You Should Love Those X$%#@$ Staffing Agencies
More money seems to be the obvious answer. It turns out the agencies are paying similar wages. Okay, so what else could it be?
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Are You Too Tired to Care?
Help is out there. But people are too tired to wade through the details, much less be energized to pull up the bootstraps and go at it.
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The Will Smith Approach to Goal Getting
Clarity of mission is a powerful cornerstone of success. Goal setting is one thing. Goal getting is entirely another.
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3 Ways To Close More Move-Ins
The next phase of industry growth is using marketing technology and a hustle mindset to capture prospects as well as connect & convert leads.
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No Respect – A Commentary on Throw in the Towel
John Zeisel’s response to a recent Senior Living Foresight article. The problem is actually bigger than we thought.
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Focusing on What Matters
Ultimately, knowledge can be shared and skills can be taught. Character is much harder to develop. That’s how you should be hiring.
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Do You Have a Green Box?
I arrived in the evening after work and there it was in the middle of the kitchen counter. What it represented was more than just a box.
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It’s Time for Technology to Become Fully Dignified
The expression “aging gracefully” is used so universally that it has become meaningless. But it could and should mean something.
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LeadingAge 2021 – The Good, The Bad, The Opportunity
The LeadingAge Conference in Atlanta lays bare some realities we are facing in senior living. The question is will we see the opportunity?
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4 Wise Reasons to be Timely with Email Responses
You should know why (and how) to READ your email messages. In fact, here’s the perfect acronym advice to help you.
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Re-Imagining Senior Living in the Post-Pandemic Era – Part 1
This is a good time to take a step back and re-evaluate the past years, value our successes, and see where we could have done better.
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Shedding Light on Alzheimer’s Awareness
Observations regarding the actual condition and experience of those living through Alzheimer’s. What is really happening inside their minds?
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5 Things We Learned from Virtual Trade Shows
Trade shows came to a screeching halt and had to pivot to virtual. Here’s what we’ve learned. The good, the bad, and the surprising.
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The COVID Vaccine in Senior Living – An Inside Perspective
You get the exciting call that your community is getting the vaccine. What comes next is confusion and frustration.
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Birds Do It, Bees Do It, Residents Do It Too . . . Don’t They?
A crucial and often overlooked element of healthy living is the heart. I am speaking of romantic love and intimacy. Residents need love too.
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From Run-Down to Respectable Senior Living
It boils down to service & community. To the community’s residents, families, employees, and the greater community. A no-fail strategy with proven results.
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The Optimist Effect
Do you see the glass half-full or half-empty? Can being optimistic be harmful to you or your business in certain circumstances?
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Is Everything Making You Crazy? One Tip To Soothe the Soul
When we think about the negative, that influences how we feel and how we act. It all becomes part of an endless downhill loop.
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Five Rules to Conquer Your Distractions
Limiting distractions is a big challenge. You can’t completely eliminate them, but there are some things you can to dramatically up your game.
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COVID-19 Uncovers Some Inconvenient Truths. I Think That’s Good.
COVID-19 has also exposed some long-standing issues. They have always been there, beneath the surface. But COVID-19 is making them harder to ignore.
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Marketing & Sales: Don’t Confuse the Two, Particularly Now
I am continually confounded by how Marketing & Sales are seen as the same thing, they are interchangeable and that experts in one are experts in the other.
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Ignored, Overlooked, and Underleveraged Employees: A Reality We Can’t Afford
A recently fielded survey that sheds light on some of the opportunities we have to help each and every employee make a positive contribution
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Whats Next?
It’s 2020, senior living is already trying to figure out what they should do about the glut of vacancies in their communities, then comes COVID-19.
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Sharing Our Video Best Practices During Uncertain Times
This is a wakeup call to all of us to rise to the challenge before us and find other ways of communicating.
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The Silver Tsunami Represents an Incredible, Once in a Lifetime Opportunity
There is a tsunami that is poised to hit the United States that has the potential to completely revolutionize how we invest and care for our elderly population.
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Balancing Safety with Independence, Personal Choice, and Dignity
A journalist contends that the idea that we all can be independent and self-sufficient until we die is pure fantasy. It’s time for a discussion, not judgment.
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How Asking for Help Can Boost Your Career
You never know what gem you might get.
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7 Good Reasons Why an All-Inclusive Rate is a Bad Idea in Senior Housing
Senior housing operators need to safeguard their financial goals, their customer service goals, and their care management goals
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You Need to Blow Up the Senior Living Box
People say think outside the box. I say blow up the box
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Why Being a Simple Copycat Won’t Increase Your Margins
The Devil Is in the Data
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The Key to Making Your Margins: Direct Care Staff
we often think we know what the needs of our residents are
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Dreaming Big About AI in Senior Living
We may be missing a huge opportunity that is under our noses
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Top Lead Sources for Senior Living Providers . . . And Other Insights
Winning at the Sales and Marketing Game
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Breaking the Mold: The Power of Positive Deviance in Senior Communities
The Rocket Man or Woman of any senior community.
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Navigating the Future – Challenges to the Senior Living and Care Industry – Planning
This is the first in a 5-part series on understanding the market, planning for the emerging market, and designing for the emerging market.
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Is This An Insane or Brilliant Retention Strategy?
The Ohio Masonic Home in Springfield, Ohio, like essentially every single senior living company in America, has been struggling with staffing, including attendance.
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Do You Want to Make Your Brand More Powerful?
Learn about the importance of building your brand at Argentum’s Senior Living Executive Conference.
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3 Simple Ways a Spirit of Empowerment Can Change Your Culture
Why is it so hard to nurture a culture of “We” instead of “Me”?
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Home for the Holidays — A Real Life Tale of Senior Living
Some of us have loved ones living in the communities we operate, invest in and provide services to.
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Proven Strategies to Drive Occupancy in Assisted and Independent Living
If your goals are to attract new residents, preserve occupancy, and keep your residents happy, healthy, and aging-in-place, you must take action!
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Why Would Anyone Think Code Compliance Is Good Enough?
The Regulatory Trap — Mere Code Compliance is Complacency!
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4 Efficiency Boosters to Grow Your Bottom Line in Senior Dining
Both efficiency and effectiveness must work hand-in-hand for an experience that exceeds residents’ expectations.
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How Racial Bias in a Starbucks Challenges Us at Benchmark
On May 29, Starbucks closed more than 8,000 U.S. stores to conduct anti-bias training with 175,000 employees.
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Senior Living Finds A Place at the Table in the Healthcare Hairball
Senior Living organizations should have a place at the table in post-acute strategy discussions.
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Get-Your-Tissues-Out for This One: The Rosemary and Don Story
Love finds a way . . . even through the tangled thoughts of dementia.
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Sexual Harassment — How to Protect Your Company and Not Become the Next Newsflash
It seems like every broadcast news report, blog and editorial is weighing in on the latest high profile sex scandal. Will your company be next?
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3 Simple Ways To Bring The Joy Of The Holidays Into Your Community
During this time of year, residents may have increased feelings of isolation and loneliness. Luckily, there are a few things senior living providers can do to help.
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Six Reasons the Senior Housing Industry Needs Executive Coaches
Leaders recognize the potential of protecting the investment they’ve already made in their people by offering up some outside perspective through coaching.
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Racism & Senior Living
Racism in America is nothing new. Some people think it was banished in the 1960s but I’m afraid that is a mistaken idea.
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You’ve Never Seen a Sleepover Like This!
A place where the young and young at heart can come together.
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A Harrowing Assisted Living Hurricane Tale from Puerto Rico
As bad as the hurricane damage has been in Texas and Florida it is nothing compared to what hit Puerto Rico and the rest of the Caribbean.
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Can Social Isolation Be Solved With Technology?
Studies have shown that individuals age 60 and older who report feelings of loneliness had a 45 percent higher risk of death than those who do not report feeling lonely.
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Ageism Activist to Challenge Attendees
“We cannot challenge bias unless we are aware of it.”
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How Technology Is Impacting Our Communities: A Viewpoint From Brookdale
Trailblazers In Senior Living — pacesetters in our field that have implemented new and innovative ideas aimed at delivering transformative experiences to residents, families, and caregivers.
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It Sucks To Be A Senior Living Consumer . . . Even When I’m An Expert
Help! I’m a stereotype!
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Is it Possible to Have a Brand in the Senior Living Field?
What is the best position to claim or occupy in the mind of prospects and referral sources?
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NOW Is the Time for the Senior Living Industry To Get Better!
This article was published on Agesong.com, on June 8, 2017 by ElderquakeFollowing is a...
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Please Nursing Home, Let Me In
Dear Nursing Home, Why are you rejecting me? Please let me come to your community and be a friend to your residents . . .
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Frequency or Reach – Deciding Based On Your Campaign’s Goals
When it comes to creating and launching a good campaign, two big factors to track, in order to assess the campaign’s effectiveness, are frequency and reach.
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NIC Expands Programming for 2017 Spring Investment Forum
New strategies will be shared at the 2017 NIC Spring Investment Forum. New sessions focus on how to partner with providers outside the real estate silo.
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Senior Skype Dates
Human connection via technology.
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Residents are the Industry Disruptors
No industry can thrive if it has contempt for the voice of its customers. Therefore, to end ageism, we need to start by listening to the elderly describe what it is like.
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Senior-Friendly Communities Not Just in Fairy Tales
Stiftung Liebenau operates dozens of unique communities throughout Europe. It’s a sign of the success of the European Union that a concept that works well in one country can be translated into the local customs of cultures around the continent.
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The Vital Aging Secret Betty White Knows All About
Betty White isn’t alone in living life to the fullest. People who follow their passion know all about this and have been doing it for decades.
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The Unapologetic Al Powers Argument Against Segregation
Thanks to Denise Boudreau-Scott for her beautifully written interview with me about “memory care” and segregation. The article drew many comments, and I thought it would be useful to address them in more detail.
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Myths or Truths?
It is important to identify any myths you might hold about your retirement community and those you serve.
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10 Positive First Impressions When Visiting Senior Living Communities
What first impressions are your senior living staff and community giving out?
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10 Ways To Increase Professional Referrals
When new prospects are not flocking to your door, how do you and your sales team make business happen?
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Our Dementia Crisis — Who Is Crazy?
It is amazing to me that Alzheimer’s disease has not only confounded our medical and scientific ambitions, but also our humane and compassionate models of care.
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Assisted Living Providers Prepare for Rise in Dementia
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the frequency of Alzheimer’s disease is expected to double by mid-century.
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Groundbreaking Study Shows Positive Impact of Assisted Living on Seniors’ Quality of Life
ProMatura, a global market research firm, has concluded a first-of-its-kind study of assisted living residents and family members that details the impact this popular care model is having on the lives of California’s seniors
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Do You Really Understand the Changing Demographics?
NIC session takes a deep dive into the numbers.
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The Amazing Impact of an Animal in Memory Care
Animals can have a powerful impact on our day-to-day lives . . . they can have an even stronger impact in memory care.
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Selling Through a Different Lens
Photos can help you get to know your prospects better—that means fewer “cold” leads and more successful relationships.
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Dead Trees, Sales Pipelines & Loss Aversion
It’s time to cut the dead wood from your sales pipeline.
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Why Time and Skills Triumph Over Volume and Velocity
When we put the senior living sales process under the microscope of science, we have to look at why a volume and velocity approach is vastly inferior to a time and skills approach.
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Do You Know What It Takes to Master Your Closing Ratio?
In order to get to a 50% closing ratio, one must master three specific skills . . . do you know what they are?
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Senior Living Must Learn from Fast Adaptors to Remain Viable
A “buggy” in the era of the self-driving car, senior living executives say their industry is evolving at a sloth-like pace.
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The Great Eight – Characteristics of Outstanding Senior Housing Management Companies
Eight simple things to look for in a great third-party management company.
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Is Flawed Thinking Hurting Your Occupancy?
The science of cause and effect regarding the structural foundation of the senior housing and care industry.
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I Challenge You!
Make restorative nursing a focus and a priority this year!
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The Future of Senior Care is MESH
Dr. Thomas believes the new concept is not a continuum, but rather a MESH (Move, Eat, Sleep, Heal)
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Fair Housing Act Implications of “Minority” Senior Communities
It is important to be clear that all people are welcome.
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Unbelievable: A Jewish Senior Living Community in a Methodist Corporation
When two cultures come together . . . it can be a beautiful thing!
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How to Close Your Occupancy Gap: Without Adding A Single Sales Rep
“Automated” does NOT mean “impersonal” . . . not anymore.
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The Four Hardest Questions to Answer at the End of the Year
Four hard, messy, difficult, useful questions to reflect upon as 2015 draws to an end
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Would Benchmarking Call Response Times Benefit Senior Living Communities?
How do your call response times measure up to these?
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Want to Convert More Leads with Your Content? 3 Tweaks to Success
Content may be King… but Creative Design is Queen!
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Part 2: “Moneyball” – Counting Numbers That Matter
Spend time well.
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“Moneyball” – Are You Counting The Numbers That Matter?
Let’s count what counts…
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I Moved Twice To Follow Granger Cobb
In Memory of Granger Cobb
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When It Happens to You . . .
Bringing your work home with you can actually be a good thing.
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The Role of Spirituality, Aging and Senior Living
In a society that defines us by what we do and how productive we are, defining meaning and purpose in older age becomes more challenging.
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Margaret Wylde on The State of Senior Living
5 Questions for Margaret Wylde
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The Cyber Seniors Program: Connecting Generations
I was nervous about joining the program, because I’ve never worked with seniors before
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The Elephant in the Room of Senior Living
If your senior living community doesn’t change, you won’t have a differentiator or anything that makes you stand apart. If you don’t keep pace, you might be someone’s last choice, instead of their first.
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Gardant Leads National Summit on Affordable Assisted Living
As far as we can tell, this is the first time that so many key individuals from across the country were gathered together in one room for one day to talk about this issue
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Is Your Team Helping or Hurting Your Occupancy?
By creating a strong platform for consistently excellent service experiences for your prospects and existing clients, you can create a powerful engine for growing your reputation and building your occupancy.
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Do You Agree With These 5 Predictions on the Future of Senior Living?
Senior Living Industry CEOs See Consumers Proactively Choosing Senior Living, But Needing to Plan; Predict the Industry Becoming a Leading Career Path and Converging with Healthcare
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Why You Should Reach Outside Your Walls for Mother’s Day
Staying socially engaged as you age adds to life expectancy
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The Perfect Storm: High Turnover Coupled with Increasing Demand for Senior Living Workers
This article by Irene Fleshner was orginally published on the OnShift Blog (A Senior Housing Forum...
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Another Perspective on Wander Management
Wander solutions run the gamut from simple signage to high technology
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Resident Love – Family Hate
Too often children cannot embrace the reality that mom or dad has moved on.
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An Age Old Staffing Question: Your Part-Time/Full Time Nursing Mix
What is the optimal mix of full- and part-time employees to efficiently and effectively staff my facility?
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Billy Crystal Attacks Ageism
Billy provides a poignantly insightful and charmingly funny look at aging from the perspective of a Baby Boomer who recently turned 65.
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12 Pieces of Advice
The holidays surrounding this season are perhaps the most reflective about our lives, the most reverent for the highest power we believe in, and the most joyous for the celebrations we share with those we hold most dear.
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When Seniors Cut Loose on a College Campus, Expect the Unexpected
Sometimes it’s great to get away, to step outside the norm, to have an adventure, to relive glory...
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Staying Connected with the Help of Technology, Part 1
Supporting close connections between residents and family members living outside the immediate area has traditionally been a big challenge.
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Nursing Homes: Our Society Has Chosen to See Only Darkness
This article by Jordan Grumet is an internal medicine physician who blogs at In My...
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