By Jack Cumming
Are you going to be in Boston on November 3rd? If so, you will have the chance to join a conversation to improve the aging experience by better engaging with older people. It’s no secret that giving customers and prospective customers a better experience contributes to stronger sales and financial success.
The event is titled Session 31-E. Engage Residents as Partners to Help Your Community Thrive. What makes this session different is that there will be no lengthy presentations, with one or two questions squeezed into the last five minutes. The panelists plan to introduce themselves briefly and then roam the room with a microphone seeking your input.
What Do You Think?
Do you think that family members should be more closely connected with your community and your residents? Let’s hear how that might work. Do you think we should try to attract younger residents or vice versa? That can be part of the discussion. Do you think that residents don’t want to govern themselves? You can share why that’s wise.
The panelists themselves come from disparate backgrounds. Jill Vitale-Aussem leads Christian Living Communities in Colorado and authored the book, Disrupting the Status Quo of Senior Living: A Mindshift. Luana Pinasco lives in a community that was featured in a disturbing book, Inflamed: Abandonment, Heroism, and Outrage in Wine Country’s Deadliest Firestorm. She is now the president of the National Continuing Care Residents Association.
J. Hunter Moore is Interim President & CEO of Swiss Village, Inc., a Mennonite affinity community in Berne, Indiana. You can read about him in the article Finding a Grandparent. You can find out about me at the end of this article. In short, I advocate for the preservation of respect and dignity for aging Americans throughout their lives. We are all aging.
What’s A Community?
A community is a group with a shared sense of belonging and mutual support. One of the lessons I learned early in my involvement with senior living is that no two communities are the same. Some think that staff should handle everything and that residents should be docile. In truth, some very frail residents are capable of little more than docility. At the other extreme are self-governing communities like Villa Marin in San Rafael, California, or Beaumont Senior Living in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. There’s even a hybrid in Topsham, Maine. People are aging everywhere.
Come Join Us
We know that your time in Boston is valuable, and many enticing sessions beckon you to attend. If you like interaction between the audience and the panel, this will be an enticing session for you. Come to Room 153ABC on Level 2 of the Northeast corridor of the convention center at 3:00 PM on Monday, November 3rd. Better yet, come early; we’d love to get to know you before we start.
