An Operation Warp Speed for Alzheimer’s? Why not?
Our nation’s response to COVID-19 provides a definitive answer about what more can be done for Alzheimer’s disease.
Editors’ Columns
4 lessons for senior living from 2020
Five senior living industry leaders recently took the time to share with me — for you — their insights into the biggest challenges that faced owners and operators in 2020 and the challenges they will face in 2021. I’ve gleaned four lessons for the senior living industry for this year.
Buckle up, buttercup
If the Democrats manage to run the table, it’s a whole new ball game. Here’s what senior living operators soon might see.
Vaccine advice from your peers
Many are viewing the vaccine as a gift of sorts, a solution to end the months of extra safety precautions and social isolation that everyone has endured. But if you have staff members or residents who remain leery, your fellow operators have some suggestions to alleviate their concerns.
John O'Connor's Columns
For many in senior living, this year has been a slow burn
Counting the days until this year is over? Consider yourself in good company.
Misreading future and current events
As more experts weigh in on senior living, two distinct trends are emerging. Both could use a tweak.
For senior living, is it too early to pick up the pieces?
So the good news is that we’re inching a bit closer to harnessing the Great Pandemic of 2020. Yet overall, 2020 is sort of shaping up as the year our world stood still.
‘That’s what we should sell: peace of mind’
It’s probably safe to say that the number of operators who will look back at 2020 as the good old days will be low indeed. The How-Did-We-Survive? days might be more like it. And yet, cause for optimism remains.
For senior living, it will be the best of times – and the worst
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, my sense is that we are going to see operators generally following one of three paths.
Helping women leaders overcome the masculine mystique
There’s no doubting that senior living is a male-dominated field, at least at the top. But that is beginning to change.
It’s not just residents who are suffering
This insidious virus has been harsh on the elderly among us – especially your residents – who are getting sick and dying in disproportionate numbers. As bad as that reality is – and it is terrible – it hardly accounts for all the pain in our midst.
Senior living could use a traitor like this
For my money, what the field could really use – perhaps even more so than targeted retooling – is a person along the lines of a John C. Bogle. Or better yet, more than one.
For senior living operators, two new problems might soon emerge
We are hearing much about how the future of senior living will be different. Buildings will be less virus friendly, ventilation systems will improve, infection control practices will get better and marketing messages will change, according to the experts. But there are two looming challenges that we’re not hearing much about: labor and lawsuits.
Uncle Sam, protector of senior living?
As bad as this year has been, observant operators have learned an important lesson: the government considers senior living too important to fail.
This is where the pandemic might really hurt senior living
There is no easy fix for the worst thing the pandemic has done: raising new doubts about whether congregate living is a good idea.
Senior living operators, the ball’s in your court
It’s a bit troubling to watch bad moves made by skilled care operators repeated in senior living. Yet it continues to happen.
Memories are made of this
In all our lives, there are things that happen. And then there are events that are so profound they become the pillars of our collective memory. For the senior living sector, COVID-19 has the potential to become one such pillar.
Senior living’s slide into the welfare class
The push for support for assisted living from Uncle Sam is intensifying. But as any skilled care operator will remind you, Uncle Sam tends to be a very demanding business partner.
Senior living needs to repair its reputation
Sadly, senior living’s reputation these days often is less than stellar. And if we are going to be clear-eyed, the pandemic hardly started the trouble.
The lighter side of unprecedented carnage
We’re barely into the third quarter, yet it’s already clear this will be a year unlike any other.
Senior living operators should get familiar with these two words
This is probably a good time to get comfortable with a term economists like to throw around: creative destruction.
Senior living struggles to solve the $600 question
As Congress gets ready to finalize a third relief package, one of the few remaining sticking points is slowly fading.
Sound advice that couldn’t come at a better time
During a Wednesday Forum, some of the best leaders in the business shared some much-needed advice and insight. Here are a few choice cuts.
The future of senior living? Listen to the old folks
I mention the unpredictability of predictions because some interesting ones have begun popping up in this sector lately.
Lois Bowers' Columns
A pandemic-perfect gift for the women in your work life
The early bird deadline for the McKnight’s Women of Distinction awards, with reduced entry fee, is this Wednesday. The final deadline is Jan. 6. This year’s awards competition includes a new category.
Pining for the workforce challenges of 2019
As we pass the nine-month mark since the first known case of coronavirus arrived in a U.S. long-term care facility, a new survey provides more evidence that the pandemic has exacerbated long-standing workforce issues in senior living, skilled nursing and healthcare.
Pandemic is ‘pie in our face’ and opportunity for change, speakers say
With many legislators and members of the lay media focusing their attention on long-term care due to the coronavirus pandemic, now may be an opportune time to educate these audiences about the industry and its needs, said panelists last week at a LeadingAge Annual Meeting Virtual Experience keynote session.
No side of COVID with my turkey
I’ll make my mother’s dressing recipe, a family favorite, and the rest of the meal, for two instead of 20, and at some point during the day, I hope to join my siblings and their families for a video chat.
The ‘bright spots’ of COVID
As senior living and skilled nursing professionals joined together to work through pandemic-related challenges, new connections were made and long-term friendships were formed. Those are some of the “bright spots” of COVID-19, LeadingAge Board of Directors Chair Carol Silver Elliott said Tuesday when delivering the keynote address opening the 2020 LeadingAge Annual Meeting Virtual Experience.
Parkinson ponders post-election landscape
Regardless of how long we need to wait after Election Day until we know the results, they will have “enormous implications on everything, including long-term care,” American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted-Living President and CEO Mark Parkinson told those listening to LTC Properties’ third-quarter earnings call on Friday.
Assisted living: Not so hidden anymore
Scott Tittle used to say that assisted living was hiding in plain sight, but “the reality is, more people have begun to actually see us amidst COVID,” the National Center for Assisted Living executive director said. That visibility can be both good and bad.
No debate about it — long-term care deserves attention during pandemic
A debate, a tweet and a planned national moment of silence are keeping COVID in the spotlight.
7 C-suite strategies to help you balance your personal and professional lives
It’s a perennial challenge for business professionals: How to balance the demands of our personal and professional lives. But COVID has added a new twist.
Fall conference season: A new, virtual reality
Our professional and personal lives have been upended in ways we would not have imagined a year ago. Some conferences have been canceled, and others have been rescheduled and moved online. But fall conference season has begun.
A special week during an unusual time
If ever there was a year that “Caring is Essential,” it is 2020. Indeed, the theme of this year’s National Assisted Living Week (with an emphasis on the AL in essential), which began Sunday, is very appropriate.
Training could help employee retention, survey says
In the midst of a pandemic, when your organization is trying to keep up with and adhere to local, state and national regulations and orders to keep residents and staff members safe and healthy, staff training on human resources issues may not be foremost in your plans. Yet as recruiting and retaining workers continue to be challenges in senior living, a new survey suggests the importance of such training.
Robots’ surprising nonfans — and how to win them over
As the use of social/personal robots increases in senior living communities, a new study has uncovered a surprising group of nonfans – grandchildren — and suggests ways to win them over.
Combatting ‘another pandemic’ related to COVID-19
When coronavirus hit the U.S., Buckner Retirement Services’ CCRCs “acted swiftly” to protect residents and employees, Senior Vice President Charlie Wilson says. “But as the situation lingers, we are seeing another pandemic affect residents: loneliness,” he adds. Buckner and LeadingAge Texas have a plan.
Voices growing in call for senior living to receive federal aid
For months now, industry associations have been making the case for senior living operators to be included in a federal COVID relief package. Increasingly, their messages are being heard, and other voices are joining their pleas.
9 steps to strengthen age diversity and inclusion in the workplace
As senior living organizations work to become more diverse, a new survey shares encouraging news about multigenerational workforces and anti-ageism efforts among various types of employers around the world. But work remains.
Take heart in older adults’ resiliency
We’ve heard a lot lately about the loneliness and isolation that some residents — and their families — are feeling during the pandemic. These feelings are real, and there are real consequences of the separation of residents and their loved ones. Nonetheless, I took some comfort in the results of a recent study.
New book can help you welcome LGBT residents
Tim R. Johnston, Ph.D., senior director of national projects for LGBT elder advocacy organization SAGE, spent a year and a half working on his new book, “Welcoming LGBT Residents: A Practical Guide for Senior Living Staff.” He recently answered some questions for me about the book and its subject matter as well as his work at SAGE.
45 impressive honorees, 3 CE sessions and you
Our virtual McKnight’s Women of Distinction Awards and Forum is only one week away! Anyone can attend, and there’s no admission fee, so please join us.
The mental health toll of COVID-19 — and what you can do about it
It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this column that the pandemic has had mental health effects on workers. Recent research on the topic may surprise you, however.
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