Due to the USA's aging population, which is set to double before the year 2050, there will be a marked increase in demand for assisted living facilities. With this demand, there will also be a whole raft of innovations for one to expect within the assisted living industry itself. To keep you abreast of all the different changes that are heading towards this industry, this guide will outline ten fascinating new developments that have already started and are likely to increase in the future. Read on for ten ways the industry will change.
More Intergenerational Programs
As people get older and live longer, the time they will be staying at an assisted living facility will extend. This will mean that they want to share more of their skills with the younger generation, possibly leading to more intergenerational programs offered at these facilities. These can come in the form of mentorship schemes, seminars, workshops, and lectures, as the older generation passes on their knowledge to their grandchildren as well as to interested people in the community. It will make sense for assisted living facilities to put in place campaigns that will facilitate this exchange of information.
More Active Facilities
With a higher aging population, there will be an increased proportion of elderly people who are still in strong physical fitness. They will not be content with mere crocheting and bingo, but will want to take part in sports such as golf, tennis, swimming, and more. Assisted living facilities might have to scramble over each other to show off their most exciting offers.
Higher Education
An increase in the elderly population with strong mental health will see more elderly people wanting to pursue higher education, especially women who may feel that they were denied those opportunities at a younger age. Assisted living facilities might want to find ways to communicate with universities and colleges in order to make sure that elderly people can access higher education, especially with a focus on remote and part-time learning.
Focus on Disease Prevention
The coronavirus pandemic was particularly relentless in assisted living facilities. This is because people who stay at them, due to their increased age and other co-morbidities, are more likely to die from catching COVID-19. Care homes will have to prove in the future that there will be far more comprehensive measures in place in order to ensure that something such as this will never happen again. This is due to the reduced sense of trust that people may have about the capabilities of care homes in order to keep elderly people safe.
Longer-Term Stays
The average life expectancy in the USA has increased by eight years on average over the past sixty years. This means that the number of people who are staying in assisted living facilities for a much longer time, stretching into the tens of years, will increase. This will mean that there will be more deliberation from people when choosing a place to spend their final years. In order to compete, these places will have to focus on better design, care, and hospitality. If you are interested in this industry and would like to take part in it, then it would be necessary for you to start RCFE administrator certification training.
Smart Home Technology
The smart home has the potential to revolutionize the future of assisted living. Whether it's the implementation of tablets to facilitate easier communication with caregivers or smart robots that can cater to patient's needs, the smart home will change assisted living in fascinating ways. Already, due to the constraints of the coronavirus pandemic, care homes have experimented with the possibilities of virtual visits via Zoom or Skype, which may become more common in the future. Here, assisted living facilities will have to think about how to make these processes easier with elderly people, especially those who are not so tech-savvy.
Health and Wellness Programs
Health and wellness will be at the forefront of later living in life, as elderly people ditch more unhealthy habits such as drinking and smoking and instead focus on more holistic activities. Assisted living facilities will want to offer activities such as yoga, swimming, pilates, and so on if they want to attract these more health-conscious minded seniors.
Better Dining
As the world has become more multicultural and the type of food one can expect in cities is varied and high-quality, people are expecting good food wherever they go. This will have to extend to the world of assisting living facilities if they want to compete with the high level of quality that people are used to. Additionally, due to the rise of multiculturalism, the ethnographic makeup of care homes will change. If care homes want to make all their residents happy, they will have to vary their food offerings in order to reflect the different backgrounds of their residents.
Increased Mental Care
With an aging population and more elderly people moving into assisted living facilities, there will need to be increased care for people suffering from the variety of mental diseases that follow, such as Alzheimer's and dementia. These can be challenging issues that require specially trained care professionals, with perhaps more people coming over from the field of nursing into an assisted living context.
Higher Focus on Hospitality
Back in the day, assisted living was merely a place to put elderly people in the later stages of their life. Nowadays, people are expecting care on the level of a high-grade hotel. Hospitality will rise to become a key tenet of the assisted living field, covering all the topics that is written before, as well as covering more general standards of care, including the quality of staff, overall friendliness, and the way that a care home can meet people's needs. While at the end of the day, it will not be exactly like staying at the Ritz, assisted living workers will be pushed to provide the highest level of care possible.
