Itzel Mata is the face of what’s possible in senior living. Mentioning her name may embarrass her, though she assented to my telling her story. She happens to work in the CCRC where I live, but her story could be the story of many young people like her who work anywhere in senior living. Too often, we approach senior living from the top down, and we miss the many opportunities where staff interact with residents. The remoteness of many key employees from daily interaction with residents limits effective responsiveness.

A New Position

Itzel functions in a new position. It’s one that a group of residents pressed to be allowed to have. That process alone wasn’t easy, but eventually it succeeded. Itzel’s title is “Resident Technology Assistant.” You might think that would be part of the technology operation, but it’s not. That is managed remotely, primarily from the central office. You might think it would be part of life enrichment, but it’s not. Perhaps it’s too human for technologists and too technical for humanists. The Resident Technology Assistant is its own unit.

This position has proven to be a game changer for resident empowerment. Every CCRC, every senior living enterprise, should have such a person on staff. Interacting with technology has become central to providing meaningful lives for residents. It’s hard to imagine how residents can be served without someone to assist them in gaining the benefits of smartphones, television, voice response, and more. This will clearly be even more important in the future.

Self-Discipline

After throwing herself into her role, Itzel began to develop her own metrics to assess her value and to allow her to give meaningful accountability to the residents’ technology committee. How many people do you know who are that self-sufficient and that determined? Looking at her data reveals that challenges with smartphones and with televisions comprise nearly 50% of the assistance she provides.

Televisions? I was surprised. My first thought was that bewildered residents may confuse remotes, but that wasn’t it. It turns out that most problems are caused by glitches in the equipment provided by the cable company. A reboot often fixes the problem, but that takes time and is more than many residents are comfortable doing themselves.

A Profound Impact

Itzel’s most recent report for the month of February 2025 had a startling statistic. Of 202 residents in our CCRC as of the end of that month, she helped 132 separate individual residents during that one month. That means that her help touched 65% of the residents, and she visited 44% of the residents more than twice. Most commonly, a visit took an hour, though the range ran from under 15 minutes to 150 minutes. Itzel does whatever it takes, including trying to get the cable company on the phone.

Intriguingly, although Itzel’s position was created in response to residents’ initiative, many of her calls are to help staff. Life enrichment is the biggest user of those services, which accounts for nearly 45% of her support for other staff. Not unexpectedly, life enrichment support is followed by requests from assisted living staff at 28.6%.

Outside the Norm

Although the Resident Technical Assistant position is not part of the technology operation, it’s clearly something that’s needed. It’s also a key component of life enrichment. Technology is only of value when it enriches life, so it’s not surprising that the two are converging, though outside the silos of either department.

Senior living is evolving. Few communities now have a resident technical assistant, though we can hope that deficiency will soon disappear. Also, traditional functional silos are becoming outdated. The best practice for a housing and living operation is to support the whole personas of the people who live there. That requires new thinking that reaches beyond the siloed corporate traditions of functionaries who know “to stay in their lane.”

Motivating the Best

In addition, Itzel is the kind of employee who might build a career serving older people. Her mother has been a long-term employee in the CCRC, where Itzel now works. In her off time, Itzel is seeking healthcare qualifications that will likely take her away from senior living. She grew up in the industry but is unlikely to stay. That’s a challenge that providers, their associations, and their advisers would be wise to address. For now, it’s much discussed in industry circles with little action to show for the talk.