Gathering spaces, apartments and restrooms might be decades old, with dark or unwelcoming decor. More pressing is a lack of integrated technologies that can exacerbate the isolation of seniors during the pandemic, and even affect their safety.
Updating these residences to meet the evolving needs of older adults — and to better address COVID-19 — requires more than a touch-up, some panelists noted in sessions this and last week at the LeadingAge Annual Meeting Virtual Experience.
“The facilities need to be fundamentally redesigned,” said Jeannee Parker Martin, CEO of LeadingAge California, part of the national association of nonprofit providers of aging services. “We need a creative and more intensive approach … to reimagine a place where we want to go to receive care when we need it, both for the short and long term.”
