senior living

You know the statistics and they are alarming.  Doctors and nurses are burning out, especially in the ER.  Turnover is highest in the lowest-paid care positions – home care is at a high point at 77% as of 2022.  Pressure is growing in senior living to ‘keep people well’ in conjunction with a higher level of acuity of care needs. Demand and costs are up, and availability of workers is down. Add the baby boomer population growth – all will pass 65 in just 7 more years -- in conjunction with a shortage of workers able and willing to help them. Hospitals are closing, particularly in rural areas – boosting expectations about care delivery in the home.  And in 2023, AI technology is emerging  to manage and even improve care. Here are four observations from the just-completed research interviews on this topic: 

 Aging 2.0, from very small to very big. Begun in 2012 through the efforts of Katy Fike and Stephen Johnston.  The goal: address the biggest challenges and opportunities in aging. In 2021, Aging 2.0, at that point with "40,000-plus innovators in 130 chapters across 31 countries," was acquired by the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council.  Despite denial that this acquisition was not changing the mission, it has migrated from its long-time loosely connected chapters with a few members here to a thousand there. Louisville ownership has transformed both its members and sponsorship -- senior living, skilled nursing, healthcare, insurers.  Here are five exhibitors/content from the Aging 2.0 Optimize event beginning today in Louisville:

Older adults and caregivers are served by a number of offerings and events. And CES 2024 is still more than 3 months away.  Events are ahead like Aging 2.0 Optimize in September in Lousiville, LeadingAge’s Annual Meeting in November in Chicago, and the What’s Next Longevity Innovation Summit in December in Washington.  Each of these will no doubt feature startups of services and technologies, many incorporating AI) in multiple areas.   In the meantime, here are five recently announced innovations and services for the older adult marketplace worth checking out:

Long ago 'aging in place' terminology emerged with a different meaning.  Forgotten now, it was briefly in Wikipedia to define the benefit of a continuing care retirement community where you did not have to leave the community if you required higher levels of care. And the term wandered over briefly to assisted living.  But it eventually stuck as remaining in your own home through thick and thin. And in 2013, it was promoted on the book circuit by former HUD director, Henry Cisneros about his 87-year-old mother – they were both insistent that she 'age in place.'  Which she did, until she died after a fall, isolated in her huge house after all her neighbors had died or moved away.